
New 'painless' treatment to repair teeth - amalag
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/New-painless-treatment-to-repair-teeth/articleshow/30562836.cms
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amalag
Looks like it is not very new, there are other articles on it:

[http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sci-
tech...](http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sci-tech-and-
agri/breakthrough-dentistry/article5081112.ece)

Here is the medical paper
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23112478](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23112478)

Here is the patent
[http://www.google.com/patents/US20120231422](http://www.google.com/patents/US20120231422)

And this is the picture worth a thousand words
[http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/US20120231422A1/U...](http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/US20120231422A1/US20120231422A1-20120913-D00000.png)

~~~
spikels
Thanks!

More bad journalism about medical research. Why is this so hard? Is it that
the reporter simply cannot understand it? Or it is purposely distorted to make
it more appealing to readers? I think it is usually a combination of both of
these reasons.

~~~
aestra
"..misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than
trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less
frequent." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

~~~
spikels
I completely agree that ignorance and laziness are much more representative of
humane behavior than deceit and evil. And I believe it is just good practice
to always assume the best intentions in others for your own peace and
happiness.

However in this case the 'painless' claim which is the most appealing element
of the story appears to have been made up - it appears nowhere in the longer
article, abstract or patent.

~~~
sanoli
Sorry about this, but you mean 'human' instead of 'humane', right?

~~~
spikels
Right I meant "human" \- sorry for the typo, too late to fix now.

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adwf
Having had root canal in the past, this doesn't seem particularly helpful.

The drilling and cleaning is the painful and time-consuming part.

The actual sealing it up at the end was relatively trivial in comparison (from
my perspective).

~~~
dclowd9901
Just out of curiosity, didn't they deaden your nerve befor they went in and
drilled and cleaned it? Once that did that for me, it was no more painful than
getting a cavity filled...

~~~
ygra
You get anaesthesia, then the nerve _in_ the tooth is basically ripped out.
Then comes cleaning and shaping the root canal which for me at least often was
painful when the file basically poked into the tissue (and nerve) underneath
the tooth. That's also the part that hurt for weeks after I had the procedure.

------
yogipatel
A little more skepticism:

 _> Instead of filling the root canal with artificial materials that may pose
bio-compatibility problems_

Gutta-percha[1] is what is traditionally used to fill the empty canals. It is
used _because_ of its bio-compatibility and inertness. The most common
complication of a root canal procedure is inadequate cleaning of the canals
and related tissues, not bad apical sealing.

1: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta-
percha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta-percha)

------
rch
Not to be dismissive, but there are a lot of claims in this article that are
difficult to assess.

~~~
sp332
That's because it's a news article, not a research paper.

~~~
rch
Some news articles are kind enough to mention the journal results like those
claimed here originally appeared in.

I see some helpful links in other comments now too though.

------
kuschku
> repair teeth

This is not reparing. Repairing would assume that afterwards you've got the
same features as before, but replacing nerves and blood vessels with plastic
(or in this case, regular tissue) doesn't really provide the same features as
before.

I'd like to see much more the possibility to replace teeth with ones you've
generated from your own stem cells.

~~~
toomuchtodo
That research is progressing rapidly:

[https://singularityhub.com/2013/08/26/scientists-grow-
teeth-...](https://singularityhub.com/2013/08/26/scientists-grow-teeth-using-
stem-cells-harvested-from-urine/)

I have a high risk of cavities due to my genetics, am 31, and my teeth are
falling apart even with a high level of care (brushing 2-3 times/day,
flossing, baking soda rinse after meals to return mouth ph to baseline
quickly). I'll be happy to pay for replacement teeth grown from my own cells
when available.

~~~
voidlogic
Have you looked into having your teeth sealed (like they often do for children
teeth)?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_sealant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_sealant)

~~~
icoder
I had a bunch of teeth sealed and years later cavities started to appear
underneath the seals, which were hard to clean because of the seals. So
sealing didn't turn out to be that much of a holy grail.

------
Udo
This makes me very skeptical:

> _The root canal is restored to health by gradual build up of tissue by stem
> cells over a period, extending from a few weeks to some months._

~~~
dpatrick86
Sounds like a description of what stem cells generally do. Which part makes
you skeptical?

~~~
Udo
It's supposed to sound good, but in practice making stem cells work, for
example implanting them and stimulating them to become anything but unspecific
fatty connective tissue is really hard. I could be totally wrong of course,
and the article doesn't go into any detail, but the way it's presented
triggers several snake oil alarms.

~~~
amalag
The idea in this case is that they documented stem cells in the gums or tooth
root. The only stimulate to let the blood enter the tooth area and let it do
the rest. So they don't have active involvement in implanting and stimulating.

------
jawns
If this is legit, it sounds great ... but you couldn't pay me enough to be one
of the first people this was tested out on.

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coherentpony
I love that 'painless' is in quotes.

~~~
igrekel
Yes, I do mind the quotes too. Most dental procedures are "painless" according
to what my dentist says about it before the procedure at least.

~~~
mikeash
I doubt it hurts him much at all.

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memracom
Soon they will just be injecting some acid to stimulate stem cell production.

[http://www.nature.com/news/acid-bath-offers-easy-path-to-
ste...](http://www.nature.com/news/acid-bath-offers-easy-path-to-stem-
cells-1.14600)

------
mariuolo
Articles from indiatimes usually smell of propaganda.

