Painless Protein Scaffold Lets Cavity-Ridden Teeth Re-Grow From the Inside Out

Oh frabjous day! I'd be way more willing to go to the dentist if it meant an actual solution instead of a disappointed lecture. Right now I only go for a cleaning and a scolding.

If there could be an actual solution that would be fantastic. As it sits right now all you are getting an appoint for the future. No matter what they use to fill your teeth it isn't your teeth and eventually you will be back in the dentist chair to work on that filling again as the pulls away from the filling and the filling will have to get larger. If you could actually regrow the tooth then it would be your teeth not to dissimilar materials.

It'll probably cost a bundle at first, quite out of range of the people who need it the most (children, low-class peeps. But that's the price of progress!

As a dental student I feel the need to comment. Firstly, they are handpieces, not drills. As a science magazine, I would hope you know the difference. Drills poke holes, handpieces and the burs associated cut. . . Secondly, enamel is made of hydroxyapetite and is non-vascular (no blood going to enamel. The reason that bone can be seeded is because of the great vasculature that can provide the needed calcium. The problem with teeth is that the fluoride and calcium that can strengthen hydroxyapetite (not rebuild or create)must come from the saliva. We also have to look at the time period it would take for saliva to provide enough calcium to create a bone-like scaffold. (enamel is the strongest mineralized structure in the human body, followed by dentin -lays beneath enamel- and then bone, which really wouldnt provide any prevention of future decay, especially not like a composite (white) or amalgam (silver) restoration would)By the time enough calcium was collected to create this scaffold, the bacteria in the mouth would have recolonized the area and be causing more decay. You cannot just clean out decay without placing a restoration, that is just exposing fresh, healthy tissue for bacteria to eat up and destroy. . .

This is definitely not an end all for tooth decay or replacing any dental handpieces.

@Doc smile
First off I hope you know that none of the writers for Popular Science probably actually have a degree in any of the fields they are writing/reporting on, thier just journalists who have a passion for science.
Secondly, this and any other article on popsci.com, (minus the physics articles) are written for idiots like me who know as much about denistry as they are told by thier dentist, i.e. brush your teeth so i can make your gums
bleed irregardlessly every 6 months.
Thirdly, this was probably developed by actual Dentists, not students.
and yes i brush twice and rinse twice a day, have no know oral dieses, and floss at night. as reccommend by my dentist i've know my whole life.

So if they can create a tooth paste with the appropriate amino acids to coax our teeth into fixing themselves, why can we not find the right amino acids to coax hair folicles to grow, surely it wouldn't be a huge stretch of the immagination to create a toothpaste for the scalp (Lets call it shampoo) with the right amino acids to allow balding men to grow hair back.

I have a novel idea, how about a shower gel with the right amino acids to coax our skin cells to replenish collagen (no more saggy bits), or maybe for those of us who want a little more muscle, a shower gel which has amino acids to coax muscle development.

Granted with the toothpaste you aready have a cavity for the amino acids to actuall being within the tooth, but surely medecine can come up with a product that is absorbed into the skin, therefor allowing the amino acid to actually make its way into the skin, or muscle or hair follicle.

I had the expectation a decade ago that by 2010 we would have muscle growth in a tube, tanning in a pill.

I have now set my expectations to see this all by 2020, only 9 years left to get it right...

Grant.Upjohn

wrinkles come from the muscles under the skin being old and out of shape, thus the exercises people do to prevent wrinkles.

a shower gel to promote muscular growth would have to penetrate the skin... sooo, that wont work.

muscle growth in a tube? the muscle must first work and need repair before it is built stronger, even steriods require exercise to do anything besides give you a bad temper and make your nuts shrink. electrical stimulation to cause contraction would and does work to a small point, but doesn`t fully extend and contract the joint. flexibility in the joint is also a determining factor in how strong a muscle group becomes... muscles in a tube would only ruin your flexibily and lead to joint compression which in itself would cause injuries and long term health problems. further take a muscle that is built solely for singlular output(like a body builder) and not sustained stamina.. think of how that would affect your heart if it were modified as a sideeffect... a heart that could only keep beating for a few hours a day before getting tired... nice!

.. keep waiting....

on a side note, its very rare to find anyone who has large amounts of cavities where i grew up.. but where i live now everyone seems to have them.... where i grew up it`s all limestone wells and farmers who brushed once a week, where i live now the water contains chlorine and flouride.

myself i rarely brushed my teeth growing up.. was too busy out in the fields, though often had a stalk of something between my teeth. Ive never had a cavity, and no gum disease, since my teenage years i still only brush once a week with non abrasive toothpaste and non-alcohol mouthwash with a few drops of surgical soap in it everyday... when i go to the dentist, my gums are 1`s and 2`s all the way around (4 or higher is gum disease)

i wonder if there`s a connection between hard country water and soft city water vs. tooth decay and gum disease??? doesn`t flouride actually damage your teeth or something??

cheers, eh

@PTV83: muscles actually have nothing to do with wrinkles, it is from loss of collagen in the subdepithelial layer of skin (where all the blood vessels and other stuff is).

Fluoride does not damage teeth, at all. Your well water probably provided enough fluoride and calcium when your adult teeth were still forming to make them really hard and strong. Also, bacteria present and diet are more important in tooth decay than brushing. If you dont eat any sugary or refined foods, brush once a week, and are blessed with a non-aggressive flora of bacteria in your mouth, chances are your risk for tooth decay, called "Caries Risk" is going to be very low. On the other hand, if you eat a sugary diet and have an agressive flora of bacteria but brush 3x a day, you will still be plagued with visiting the dentist for fillings.

@JakeKamp: Just because you don't have a DDS degree doesnt mean you should sacrifice accuracy of an article in order to dumb it down. You can easily be accurate and provide a short explanantion for difficult ideas or tough words.

I could really use some extra enamal on my teeth. Regenerative Cellular Therapy is now offering Peptide treatments for a bunch of diseases, check it out at www.rctherapy.net

Research and solution are sometimes controversial. Definitely, further research in the dental field is needed in order to prevent cavities for good.