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'Tooth Repair Drug' May Replace Fillings (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the fixing-itself dept.

Teeth can be encouraged to repair themselves in a way that could see an end to fillings, according to scientists. From a report on BBC: The team at King's College London showed that a chemical could encourage cells in the dental pulp to heal small holes in mice teeth. A biodegradable sponge was soaked in the drug and then put inside the cavity. The study, published in Scientific Reports, showed it led to "complete, effective natural repair." Teeth have limited regenerative abilities. They can produce a thin band of dentine -- the layer just below the enamel -- if the inner dental pulp becomes exposed, but this cannot repair a large cavity. [...] Scientists discovered that a drug called Tideglusib heightened the activity of stem cells in the dental pulp so they could repair 0.13mm holes in the teeth of mice. A drug-soaked sponge was placed in the hole and then a protective coating was applied over the top. As the sponge broke down it was replaced by dentine, healing the tooth.

5 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Hope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are two interesting statements in the article that makes me hope this isn't vaporware.

    Prof Sharpe said a new treatment could be available soon: "I don't think it's massively long term, it's quite low-hanging fruit in regenerative medicine and hopeful in a three-to-five year period this would be commercially available."

    and

    However, the drug has already been trialled in patients as a potential dementia therapy.

    "The safety work has been done and at much higher concentrations so hopefully we're on to a winner," said Prof Sharpe.

    1. Re:Hope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Tideglusib (NP-12, NP031112) is a potent, selective and irreversible[1] small molecule non-ATP-competitive GSK3 inhibitor that has been investigated as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease and paralysis supranuclear palsy in Phase IIa and IIb clinical trials. The first clinical trial conducted with tideglusib to be published (in English, at least) was phase II and demonstrated that overall tideglusib was well tolerated, except for some moderate, asymptomatic, fully reversible increases in liver enzymes (2.5xULN; where ULN=Upper Limit of Normal).

      Tideglusib has also been investigated as a way to cause teeth to repair themselves by promoting dentine reinforcement of a sponge structure until the sponge biodegrades, leaving just a solid dentine structure. In 2016 it was successfully trialed for permanently filling 0.14mm holes in mouse teeth and there are hopes that the treatment could be used in humans.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tideglusib

  2. NovaMin by kuhnto · · Score: 2, Informative

    Or this could go the path of NovaMin and never be approved by the FDA in the United states. It would not b in the interest of BIG DENTAL.

    --
    "A 'person' is smart. 'People' are dumb, panicky animals and you know that."
    1. Re:NovaMin by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

      I used a NovaMin toothpaste exclusively for a couple of years in the US before the patents were bought out (not sure by whom) and all products containing it were discontinued.

      Novamin patents and the products containing were bought out by GlaxoSmithKline. They continue to make all the products but only in the USA and Germany do they no longer contain Novamin. Even the packaging and product names are the same except for the ingredient list.

  3. Re:Teeth - Britain by tsqr · · Score: 3, Informative

    Brexit may exasperate this probably

    No matter how exasperated you may be over Brexit, it's more likely to exacerbate the problem (or the probably, if that's really what you meant).