
'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings - clouddrover
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38524566
======
slimsag
This is insanely cool, and I imagine there is no need for me to explain how
useful this would be in comparison to the current dental approaches today.

But is this technology ever going to be available to consumers? I remember
reading about similar advancements almost three years ago and haven't heard
anything related until now. Maybe I'm pessimistic, but I think we won't see
this in practice for a Very Long Time™.

~~~
brandon272
I actually find these articles depressing because it seems like nothing like
this ever ultimately comes to fruition.

I'm guessing these "breakthroughs" have always been just around the corner. I
recall having a conversation with my dentist almost 20 years ago about things
that were up and coming that were about to make our lives a lot easier in
terms of saving and strengthening and building tooth enamel but none of what
he described ever came.

~~~
advertising
I remember reading an article about these scientists experimenting with blue
light and the larger capacity to store data. ~15 years later blu-ray came out.
All hope is not lost.

~~~
astrodust
It takes a lot of time to turn a laboratory discovery into a reliably working
prototype, then longer still for the industry to agree on standards and
branding, and even longer to ramp up mass-manufacturing and get the
distribution chain working.

We could discover teleportation tomorrow morning and it would be twenty years
before teleporters were common-place. Everything takes time to be fully
realized.

If you want to know what the near future holds look at what was discovered
thirty years ago.

~~~
eganist
> We could discover teleportation tomorrow morning and it would be twenty
> years before teleporters were common-place. Everything takes time to be
> fully realized.

I can appreciate this example, though in the specific context of
teleportation, there'll probably be a few decades tacked on to resolve the
ethical dilemmas arising from the question of whether or not the person
arriving out of the other end is in fact the same person.

(I'm of the position that it doesn't matter, but still... anyway, this entire
thought was just a tangent off an example)

~~~
RhodesianHunter
You say that now, but when you step up to the machine with the knowledge that
you are about to cease to exist, while somewhere else a perfect copy of you
gets to go about living your life, I bet you change your mind.

~~~
neverminder
Exactly. What if there's a bug and when your "copy" is created at destination
original is not destroyed? Would you agree to be killed, should your copy
agree instead? Even worse, what if there's an anomaly in transporting data,
original is destroyed and copy emerges disfigured, dead or something in
between? Teleportation scares the shit out of me.

~~~
avip
As in the quite ancient
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdxucpPq6Lc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdxucpPq6Lc)

~~~
astrodust
Original NFB source:
[https://www.nfb.ca/film/to_be/](https://www.nfb.ca/film/to_be/)

------
traskjd
I feel like I've seen how fillings would be replaced with drugs for about 25
years now -- I might not have any natural teeth left by the time it finally
arrives! :-)

~~~
majewsky
Don't worry, by that time we'll be growing teeth out of stem cells or
something.

------
biot
The dissolving sponge thing reminds me of a video I watched years ago. They
took a fully functioning organ (from a donor) and dissolved the material so
that the only part left was the collagen scaffolding. Effectively, it looked
like a transparent organ. They then flowed the recipient's blood into the
organ and the tissue regrew around the scaffolding, yielding a fully operable
organ with zero chance of foreign tissue rejection once implanted. Anyone
recognize this and might have a link?

~~~
rincebrain
Is [https://www.technologyreview.com/s/419358/old-livers-made-
ne...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/419358/old-livers-made-new-again/)
what you mean?

~~~
biot
Yeah that looks like it's the same research. Thanks!

------
cowsandmilk
Does anyone have good resources on non-behavioral factors that affect health
of teeth?

Growing up, I never brushed and did pretty much everything a dentist advises
against. I never have had a cavity. With seemingly no consequences, it was
extremely hard for me to find any motivation to change my behavior. I've often
wondered whether there was something genetic, and today I wonder if maybe I
won some microbiome lottery.

I finally started taking care of myself due to (a) gum disease, (b) breath,
and (c) yellowing of teeth, but I'm nowhere near as fastidious as some people
I know who regularly get cavities and have to get all sorts of work done.

~~~
therein
Were you a natural birth or c-section?

~~~
therein
To the person who downvoted this: natural birth is associated with
transmission of bacterial flora from the vaginal canal, acting as a seed for a
different composition of gut and mouth flora.

------
scoot
Surprised no-one has chipped in here to say the same, but the top comment on
Reddit calls bullshit:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/5n14a9/a_way_to_na...](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/5n14a9/a_way_to_naturally_regrow_damaged_teeth_in_mice/)

------
talideon
If there's one dental treatment I'd gladly pay for, it's enamel restoration to
get rid of tooth sensitivity.

~~~
credit_guy
A few days ago I bought Sensodine with NovaMin. The NovaMin technology doesn't
exactly restore the enamel, but does something similar. Here's how wikipedia
describes it:

"Bioactive glass: Newer Sensodyne products contain calcium sodium
phosphosilicate (brand name NovaMin). NovaMin sticks to an exposed dentin
surface and reacts with it to form a mineralized layer. The layer formed bonds
with the tooth, and is therefore strong and resistant to acid. The continuous
release of calcium over time is suggested to maintain the protective effects
on dentin, and provide continual occlusion of the dentin tubules. Sensodyne
has removed the NovaMin ingredient from their US products"

So far I'm happy with this new toothpaste.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensodyne](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensodyne)

~~~
proaralyst
"Sensodyne has removed the NovaMin ingredient from their US products"

Any idea why? The cited articles don't appear to mention that.

~~~
wahern
I gathered from Amazon and other user reviews that the NovaMin patent holder,
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), figured that it would make more money in the U.S.
selling it as a prescription product rather than OTC.

IIRC, there may also have been some complexities regarding the FDA, and
perhaps some cross-licensing issues, that figured into GSK's decision. The
information is out there, it just requires sifting through the Google hits and
piecing together the true story.

I buy European Sensodyne on Amazon for a family member with sensitive teeth,
and only dug deep enough to satisfy myself that at least some EU sellers
weren't scammers.

------
liquidise
> _heightened the activity of stem cells in the dental pulp so they could
> repair 0.13mm holes in the teeth of mice._

Very cool. And happy to see some numbers posted in the article to measure the
success. I now understand this is very PoC, but proof none the less.

------
maxxxxx
Let's hope there will be some real progress in dentistry. I am probably doing
the field injustice but there doesn't seem to have happened much progress in
the last decades compared to other areas of medicine. When something is wrong
the usual response is to remove it, no healing.

I personally hope that one day we will be able to regrow teeth. With all my
crowns it's too late to repair cavities.

~~~
nsxwolf
Dental implants are a pretty big breakthrough over the last couple of decades.
Wether replacing individual teeth, or permanently anchoring dental bridges in
place, it's gotten pretty darn close to the experience of having real teeth.

~~~
brandon272
Dental implants are really cool, but they are also incredibly expensive.

~~~
elros
Well in most civilized places, including where I live, ordinary people don't
have to deal with dental costs on a one-off basis.

You just pay your taxes (or the state pays them if you can't afford it) and
you're provided with healthcare.

Seems pretty reasonable if you ask me.

~~~
brandon272
In Canada our universal healthcare doesn't cover dental issues, and even
private insurance that most people would have through work only cover what is
essentially considered "necessary". I think an impant is probably considered a
luxury and certainly wouldn't be covered through insurance.

------
wslh
This is the complete paper:
[http://www.nature.com/articles/srep39654](http://www.nature.com/articles/srep39654)

I wonder why they almost never linked to the source.

~~~
metachor
Because it's easier to garner clicks for ad impressions by making bold claims
about the amazing (unproven) future benefits of a minor scientific discovery
than by presenting readers with the actual science.

------
nether
Serious question: is there any evidence that seemingly disruptive dental
treatments like this are being suppressed by the dental industry?

~~~
lancewiggs
No.

Like any new technology there are barriers entry erected by incumbent
technology/equipment providers, but there is also a flow of new dentists and
practices eager to try the latest technologies. In my visit to the dentist
just now I was reminded yet again at the astonishing pace of technology change
in their industry.

(Have advised early stage (IP) players in the space)

------
nether
Fusion, cheap solar cells, and this.

~~~
scoot
Battery tech - it's the next big thing that never was.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Ahh, except solar Is so cheap now it's driving fossil fuels out of business
and utilities are replacing natural gas peaker plants with battery storage.

Y'all sleep through the last year?

~~~
astrodust
That's the problem with exponential curves. At first nothing's happening, it's
extremely boring, and slowly, ever so slowly, things start to pick up.

Then one day you blink and it's gone right past you.

------
hkmurakami
Q: does this sort of labor destroying innovation ever get blocked by lobbying
groups?

~~~
rz2k
I remember hearing about laparoscopic surgery and ultrasonic treatments for
gallbladder and kidney stones while growing up. My dad was a surgeon and that
was a large part of his "business", but he was really excited about the
advances. However, the earlier surgery of opening up someone's abdomen often
meant days of stress about your patient lying in the hospital and potential
complications. It was a job where you were often working on people who first
met you when they seemed relatively healthy, but with some pains, and were
quickly getting worse. "Rounds", where you toured every patient in the
hospital to check on their recovery, was a part of every day of the year, and
it was nominally unpaid (though the time and attention was included in the
"package" of treatment).

At things like holiday period cocktail parties I definitely heard, especially
spouses, talk about how those changes would be dangerous since the surgeon
wouldn't have a full picture of what was going on in the abdomen, etc.
(Sometimes it's safer not to wear a seatbelt, too!)

Anyway, I think that at the same time that gallstones and kidney stones became
less labor intensive there were so many new things than needed general
surgeons than there was no impact on labor.

\--

Back to your question, there seem to be stories about curing caries as a
phenomenon somewhat frequently, and they've appeared regularly for decades.

Is this, instead, like developing a good cross-platform IMAP client? Anything
that is good enough to replace the large email providers' own apps and web
portals gets aquihired. Clearly the programmers must have been skilled enough
to handle a large number of arcane edge cases and understood users well, so
they'd be great people to have work for them. Plus, there's less likelihood
that they continue to keep IMAP access normalized, and then also happen to
provide a really effective and easy drop in encryption service.

------
randcraw
If this stuff can repair cavity holes, presumably it can replace enamel
wherever it's been lost. If it could also extend enamel onto exposed tooth
roots that lack enamel, that'd be great for us older folk with gum recession
and vulnerable naked roots.

------
bsenftner
There is a medical device, designed and manufactured in California, that
generates O3 in such a way that a single tooth can be isolated and bathed in
O3. The result is bacteria death within any tooth crack or cavity. Following
that the calcium in our saliva naturally fills in any bacteria free cracks and
cavities. This functioning, successful medical device is a "hit" everywhere on
earth except the United States because the FDA declared O3 to be a toxic gas
with "no known medical properties" and ban its use... I know one of the
engineer developers that designed it, and he's wealthy from it. He says the US
is fucked beyond repair...

~~~
proaralyst
Have you any references for those claims?

~~~
akiselev
Its nonsense. Ozone therapy is a form of alternative medicine quackery that
uses ozone generators and the FDA has cracked down on it because there's no
evidence it works and the O3 gas is toxic. It is not banned by the FDA but
marketing it as a clinical treatment is. In this sense all molecules that
aren't approved drugs are "banned" by the FDA.

If it worked, the FDA would approve it as a Class III (high risk) medical
device so my guess is that the OP's friend's company either doesn't have a
working product or they just don't want to put in the work to get it approved
(Class III devices are the most expensive to get through the FDA).

~~~
bsenftner
My buddy said they are making too much money with the rest of the world to
care about kissing the bureaucrat's ass making unreasonable requests.

~~~
akiselev
They're making "too much money" in the rest of the world, where most people
are broke or covered by nationalized healthcare and price controls, to get
their product approved in the _most profitable_ medical device market in the
world? Again, nonsense. If that were the case, pharmaceutical and biotech
companies would be lining up to license the technology and to take care of
regulatory approval and compliance, even if it wasn't covered by patents.

Your buddy is exploiting vulnerable consumers in less regulated markets to
sell snake oil. I wonder how many people will suffer immense pain or pick up a
life threatening infection because they were convinced by conartists that
oxygen was a viable alternative to proper dental care and treatment.

------
gumby
Dentists are very conservative. About 10 years ago we did some compassionate
use studies of dissolvable drug metering systems that would cause bone
regeneration -- so that an implant would attach to the jaw just the same as
your original teeth did (actually new bone would grow around it). The X-rays
were amazing and folks who'd been in pain for decades due to wobbly tooth
implants, bridges etc were thrilled.

Company decided not to go ahead with clinical trials after doing market
research on dentists in the US. Went ahead with a different drug for a
different indication instead.

------
nhaliday
This—on a somewhat similar treatment from Japan, unavailable in the US—seems
relevant:
[http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/07/the...](http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/07/the-
fda-versus-the-tooth.html)

------
TheOneTrueKyle
I recently got my wisdom teeth out because everyone said I should.

Now my jaw is suffers from paresthesia because of it. Most likely I will never
get sensation back in that area. Spent money to become paralyzed...

I don't see the value in going to dentist for slightly less tooth pain so this
sounds amazing to me.

~~~
blueish
> because everyone said I should.

Why? Wisdom tooth removal is still surgery, and you and your dentist should
have been the ones to decide on whether it was necessary or not.

If the surgery went wrong because of other complications, that's a different
issue, but you shouldn't get surgery just because other people are saying you
"should".

~~~
TheOneTrueKyle
Poor choice of words. Still had impacted wisdom teeth and was causing a decent
amount of pain. I just would prefer pain over paralysis.

Also, I have had terrible medical assistance my whole life, so I have to
figure everything out. Not the doctors/dentists. They're just the hired help I
get to do the actual heavy lifting. I honestly don't know their purpose if I
have to spend half my life doing their research

------
known
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorhexidine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorhexidine)
toothpath/mouthwash prevents many tooth/gum diseases

------
jcadam
Anything that enables me to spend less time in a dentist's chair is awesome. I
hate dental work and need nitrous oxide to get through even minor procedures
(cleanings, etc).

------
okonomiyaki3000
This is great news. Now what do you have for my shitty gums?

------
khedoros
It sounds like they're sticking something in a small cavity and covering it.
Like a filling. Minus the drilling.

------
monkey88
Paul Sharpe, the same guy that had stem cells and created a startup to mkae
new teeth grow.

Ten years ago.

------
intoverflow2
I feel like I see this headline every 2 years and nothing seems to change.

------
meerita
I wish this become mainstream next year.

------
untilHellbanned
so btw you don't want to inhibit GSK3. Likely an academic only finding.

------
awqrre
that would be a dream come true... most (all?) dentists are doing unnecessary
x-rays that are a health hazard and this would of course help with that...

~~~
majewsky
Just yesterday I saw a documentary on the dangers of atomic radiation, and one
of the numbers I remember is that the dose of radiation from a dental x-ray is
less than the average daily dose of background radiation. So, entirely
negligible unless you're getting a dental x-ray every week or more often.

~~~
awqrre
You are probably talking about the low radiation bite-wing digital x-rays...
But some type of dental X-rays have orders of magnitude more radiations, like
the Panoramic X-rays (those are very common in dental offices) or the much
worst Cone-beam computed tomography (3D). I agree that there probably isn't
much risk but they give them out like candies.

~~~
majewsky
I checked Wikipedia for the different types, and apparently I had a panoramic
X-ray made last year.

A quick googling finds [1] which puts the maximum dose for X-rays at 0.17 mSv.
Wikipedia [2] puts the average background radiation around the world at 3 mSv
per year, or 0.082 mSv per day. So while 170 mSv is indeed "orders of
magnitude more radiation" than an X-ray of a single tooth, it's still roughly
in the order of magnitude I estimated (around a day's worth of background
radiation).

[1] [http://www.ada.org/en/member-center/oral-health-
topics/x-ray...](http://www.ada.org/en/member-center/oral-health-
topics/x-rays) (section "Radiation Exposure in Dentistry")

~~~
awqrre
Next time you go to the dentist, try to ask the person taking the x-rays what
radiation setting they used or how much radiations you will be getting from
the x-rays... in my experience, they don't know... Also ask them why they
cover your torso with lead but not your brain...

Also, I think that you confused some units and you forgot to include link #2
...

------
ocdtrekkie
As someone with continual dental issues due to an unhealthy high sugar diet
and low calcium due to lactose intolerance, I'll be super excited if this
becomes a thing.

~~~
abtinf
If you want calcium from a dairy source, eat more hard cheese. Hard cheeses
have very little lactose - just pick the one with the least sugar. Cheddar is
pretty good. Parmesan too.

