Researchers at King’s College London in the UK have discovered something quite interesting. They soon may be able to help people regrow damaged teeth.
A drug known as Tideglusib that was designed to regrow brain cells in patients living with neurological disorders can actually help those of us who are not suffering from neurological disorders as well! It can stimulate the stem cell contained in the pulp of our teeth. This is something that could potentially eliminate the need for artificial fillings in the future.
Because this drug is already being used for other things it should not be as hard to get this treatment into clinics. Because it is so simple, most dentists should have no issue implementing it. Clinical trials were done on mice, in their trials the team was able to show that when the damaged tooth was filled with a sponge (biodegradable) soaked in this drug the tooth was able to gradually rebuild cavities from the surface to the root. Their findings were published in Scientific Reports and some of it goes as follows.
“The restoration of dentine lost in deep caries lesions in teeth is a routine and common treatment that involves the use of inorganic cement based on calcium or silicon-based mineral aggregates. Such cement remains in the tooth and fails to degrade and thus normal mineral volume is never completely restored. This novel, biological approach to dentine restoration stimulates the natural formation of reparative dentine via the mobilization of resident stem cells in the tooth pulp.”
“Biodegradable, clinically-approved collagen sponges are used to deliver low doses of small molecule glycogen synthase kinase (GSK-3) antagonists that promote the natural processes of reparative dentine formation to completely restore dentine. Since the carrier sponge is degraded over time, dentine replaces the degraded sponge leading to a complete, effective natural repair. This simple, rapid natural tooth repair process could thus potentially provide a new approach to clinical tooth restoration.”
You see, this could be a much more effective alternative when you lay things out. Conventional cavity fillers are prone to infections and typically weaken the tooth. Unfortunately, there is a lot more research to be done, but if this proves effective when it eventually is tested on humans it could be a major game changer. Would you give it a try?
Inspired by an article written by Vandita on AnonHq.
The post End of Fillings: Researchers Find New Way to Regrow Damaged Teeth appeared first on Educate Inspire Change.