What this means is that the outright replacement of enamel is now
plausible and in fact outright likely. While we wait for someone to
figure out how to regenerate fresh teeth, this will do nicely for
most everyone. If we can also figure out how to prevent abscesses
and the death of nerves, then teeth preservation will become the norm
into serious old age as wear itself becomes completely repairable.
For my generation who have lived with an ongoing struggle to preserve
our teeth after our parent's generation generally gave it up quite
early and switched to false teeth this may even be in time to help
extend it all some more.
I suspect though that we are about ten to twenty years out to when
fresh teeth will be simply regrown and perhaps capped with titanium
mesh.
Japan tooth patch
could be end of decay
September 16, 2012 in Dentistry
Handout picture
released from Japan's Kinki University professor Shigeki Hontsu shows
a tooth-patch, an ultra thin biocompatible film made from
hydroxyapatitte.
Scientists in Japan
have created a microscopically thin film that can coat individual
teeth to prevent decay or to make them appear whiter, the chief
researcher said.
The "tooth
patch" is a hard-wearing and ultra-flexible material made from
hydroxyapatite, the main mineral in tooth enamel, that could also
mean an end to sensitive teeth.
"This is the
world's first flexible apatite sheet, which we hope to use to protect
teeth or repair damaged enamel," said Shigeki Hontsu, professor
at Kinki University's Faculty of Biology-Oriented Science and
Technology in western Japan.
"Dentists used to
think an all-apatite sheet was just a dream, but we are aiming to
create artificial enamel," the outermost layer of a tooth, he
said earlier this month.
Researchers can create
film just 0.004 millimetres (0.00016 inches) thick by firing lasers
at compressed blocks of hydroxyapatite in a vacuum to make individual
particles pop out.
These particles fall
onto a block of salt which is heated to crystallise them, before the
salt stand is dissolved in water. The film is scooped up onto filter
paper and dried, after which it is robust enough to be picked up by a
pair of tweezers.
"The moment you
put it on a tooth surface, it becomes invisible. You can barely see
it if you examine it under a light," Hontsu told AFP by
telephone. The sheet has a number of minute holes that allow liquid
and air to escape from underneath to prevent their forming bubbles
when it is applied onto a tooth.
One problem is that it
takes almost one day for the film to adhere firmly to the tooth's
surface, said Hontsu. The film is currently transparent but it is
possible to make it white for use in cosmetic dentistry. Researchers
are experimenting on disused human teeth at the moment but the team
will soon move to tests with animals, Hontsu said, adding he was also
trying it on his own teeth.
Five years or more
would be needed before the film could be used in practical dental
treatment such as covering exposed dentin—the sensitive layer
underneath enamel—but it could be used cosmetically within three
years, Hontsu said.
The technology, which
has been jointly developed with Kazushi Yoshikawa, associate
professor at Osaka Dental University, is patented in Japan and South
Korea and applications are under way in the United States, Europe and
China.
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