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Scientists Develop Material That Could Regenerate Dental Enamel

posted by mrpg on Sunday June 03 2018, @07:54AM   
from the tooths dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

[...] Enamel, located on the outer part of our teeth, is the hardest tissue in the body and enables our teeth to function for a large part of our lifetime despite biting forces, exposure to acidic foods and drinks and extreme temperatures. This remarkable performance results from its highly organised structure.

However, unlike other tissues of the body, enamel cannot regenerate once it is lost, which can lead to pain and tooth loss. These problems affect more than 50 per cent of the world's population and so finding ways to recreate enamel has long been a major need in dentistry.

[...] Dr. Sherif Elsharkawy, a dentist and first author of the study from Queen Mary's School of Engineering and Materials Science, said: "This is exciting because the simplicity and versatility of the mineralisation platform opens up opportunities to treat and regenerate dental tissues. For example, we could develop acid resistant bandages that can infiltrate, mineralise, and shield exposed dentinal tubules of human teeth for the treatment of dentin hypersensitivity."

The mechanism that has been developed is based on a specific protein material that is able to trigger and guide the growth of apatite nanocrystals at multiple scales—similarly to how these crystals grow when dental enamel develops in our body. This structural organisation is critical for the outstanding physical properties exhibited by natural dental enamel.

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Original Submission

• "enamel cannot regenerate once it is lost" "enamel cannot regenerate once it is lost" (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 03 2018, @02:05PM (4 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 03 2018, @02:05PM (#688015)

  A Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] says otherwise: "Tooth remineralisation is a naturally occurring process in the oral cavity."

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• Re:"enamel cannot regenerate once it is lost" (Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Sunday June 03 2018, @02:21PM

  by c0lo (156) on Sunday June 03 2018, @02:21PM (#688025) Journal

  Yeah, but now they can regrow it even in vitro !!1!1one!

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  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

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• Re:"enamel cannot regenerate once it is lost" Re:"enamel cannot regenerate once it is lost" (Score: 5, Informative) by Immerman on Sunday June 03 2018, @03:48PM (2 children)

  by Immerman (3985) on Sunday June 03 2018, @03:48PM (#688041)

  Remineralization of existing enamel is a very different thing than growing new enamel. The first hardens it so that it wears away less slowly, the second would let you replace it once it's gone

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  • Re:"enamel cannot regenerate once it is lost" Re:"enamel cannot regenerate once it is lost" (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 03 2018, @10:05PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 03 2018, @10:05PM (#688113)

    The second sentence in the Wikipedia article says "It is defined as a process in which calcium and phosphate ions are sourced to promote ion deposition into crystal voids in demineralised enamel." A void is an empty space, in this case the space where enamel was lost.

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    • Re:"enamel cannot regenerate once it is lost" (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2018, @02:17AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2018, @02:17AM (#688184)

      I lost a lot of the enamel on my teeth due to sleep bruxism, and I guarantee that such a large amount of enamel isn't going to regenerate by itself.

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