Going to the dentist can feel like an exercise in futility. You brush your teeth faithfully for six months, even pulling out the floss occasionally. But at every visit, you sit in that exam chair with a sense of dread. What will he find this time? Has the cavity in that second lower molar gotten bigger? Is that front tooth actually loose, or is it just your imagination? There’s a reason that so many people dream of losing their teeth when they feel out of control.
Our teeth are so important. In fact, damaged teeth can lead to a plethora of health problems, from diabetes to heart disease. Most of the time, tooth disease leads to these other diseases because when eating is painful, we change the way we eat. Nobody wants to crunch through carrots and celery when each bite hurts.
Furthermore, tooth decay is a complicated issue. Most often, a slow wearing away of the enamel leads to actual holes, or cavities, in the tooth. And while cavities don’t usually hurt at first, once the nerve is exposed, they can hurt a lot. Weak enamel can cause pain while eating hard foods, hot foods, cold foods, and even just occasionally when you’re not eating at all. But once the enamel wears away from teeth, there’s not much you can do. You can patch up the damage or replace the tooth, but enamel doesn’t just regrow on your teeth.
Changing the Dentistry Game
Dentistry is changing. Those of us who feel hopeless in the dentist’s chair my have a new ally in our pursuit of healthy teeth. Dental scientists in the UK are so excited. They’ve come up with a new gel that works with the body’s natural growth process to repair and rebuild tooth enamel. Reparative dentistry has been primarily limited to patching up damaged teeth, but if this prospective enamel-builder works, it could offer a means to support our bodies repairing the damage on its own.
While there are numerous re-mineralizing tooth gels and pastes on the market, none of them even claim to do what this gel —and potential lozenges, pastes, and mouthwashes — hope to accomplish. Instead of just re-mineralizing weak enamel, this gel may be capable of building a faux enamel and repairing small cavities and tooth sensitivities without drillings and fillings.
The product hasn’t been tested in a human mouth yet, but it has been tested on extracted teeth, in the lab. Results for this new gel are very impressive so far. The gel uses genetically modified peptides, derived from the proteins that developing teeth use to build enamel.
The peptide takes calcium and phosphate from saliva and uses them to encourage the growth of minerals, which are then able to merge onto the existing tooth. Results so far are showing that a thin, protective layer started forming within a couple weeks. In some cases, noticeable improvements appear on teeth within a week.
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Cautious Optimism
The studies are taking place in the lab, but the re-enameling gel has been tested in simulated “real-life” situations like chewing and brushing. It’s also been exposed to acidic foods. So far, all the data shows this new gel performing like real tooth enamel. But despite all the simulations of real life use, it hasn’t been tested in a real, living, human mouth. That’s the next step. Clinical trials are scheduled to start sometime early this year. If those go well, the product could be on the market within another year or two. Researchers are hoping — and expecting — these new, genetically-engineered products to be both safe and effective in the trials.
Many dentists are excited by the possibilities of this enamel regenerative product. It’s always helpful to have a new tool available to help improve dental health, but dentists are also urging caution. This is a very new attempt. The gel, and any other products made with this peptide are new. The genetically modified peptide itself is new, and it’s important to take things slow.
Researchers want to know about any potential risks, and they want to make sure the benefits will outweigh those risks. It’s still too early to say what results it will bring to people, or whether it will even end up on the market. First of all, researchers need to make sure that it can be safe and effective long term. There are also a lot of aspects of dental health that are hard to simulate — like grinding teeth, plaque buildup, and varieties in diet to take into consideration. Something that works well in a lab may not transition to reality as well.
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Re-Growing Enamel May Have a Slow Start
Dentists also caution that despite announcements for peptide-based re-enameling products from 2016 onwards, clinical trials have been slow to start. None of the similar, peptide-based products have hit the market yet.
Some dentists also insist that even if an enamel building product came onto the market, it would only benefit people with very good dental hygiene already. Deeper cavities require more than just a fresh coating of enamel, they need dentin regeneration more than enamel. With dental neglect being a common practice in both the UK and the USA, dentists worry that this gel might give everyone a false sense of security, reducing visits to the dentist overall and causing more problems than it can solve.
These new products are also unlikely to do much good after a certain amount of decay has taken place. Small cavities may repair quickly, but larger ones need serious attention. So, while you might want to just wait out the trials and see if these up-coming products can fill in that aching tooth, you’re better off heading to the dentist now.
Researchers remain excited and hopeful. Whatever the delivery method, and whenever the products launch, researchers are hoping this peptide holds the key to improved dental health, fewer fillings, and less dental dread.
Featured Image by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash