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Immune Cells May Play a Role In Causing Cavities (newatlas.com)
Researchers at the University of Toronto have found that cavities may be collateral damage from an overzealous immune system. New Atlas reports: Traditionally, bacteria have taken most of the blame for cavities and tooth decay. The bugs cling to your teeth as plaque and produce acid as waste, which dissolves tooth enamel, dentin and even filling material. But the new study suggests the story is more complicated than that. Oral immune cells called neutrophils are dispatched by the body in response to invading bacteria -- but the researchers found that they might be a little careless in the battle.
On their own, neutrophils can't damage teeth but the problems arise after acids from bacteria demineralize them. Once weakened, enzymes released by the neutrophils could wreak havoc on other tooth substances. Damage was found to appear in a matter of hours, and worse still, it also seems to apply to tooth-colored fillings, which may explain why they tend to fail within five to seven years. The silver lining of the discovery is that it could lead to new types of treatment, or new standards for testing materials that are to be used in fillings. The research was published in the journal Acta Biomateralia.
On their own, neutrophils can't damage teeth but the problems arise after acids from bacteria demineralize them. Once weakened, enzymes released by the neutrophils could wreak havoc on other tooth substances. Damage was found to appear in a matter of hours, and worse still, it also seems to apply to tooth-colored fillings, which may explain why they tend to fail within five to seven years. The silver lining of the discovery is that it could lead to new types of treatment, or new standards for testing materials that are to be used in fillings. The research was published in the journal Acta Biomateralia.
"Immune Cells May Play a Role In Causing Cavities"
The key word is "may".
The issues are not being fully explored.
I follow a carnivore diet, on which I dropped 70 pounds and halted my internal inflammation. So no sugar or plants.
6 months in, I went to the dentist.
The hygenist was doing her thing. The dentist walked in and asked "So how is he doing with his flossing?"
The hygenist said "Perfectly - he'd been keep it clean between his teeth, there is zero build up and his gums aren't inflamed any more".
But I had not brushed or flossed once.
So plants and sugar that promote inflammation also contributes to the tooth decay. This is n=1 supportive evidence of that finding.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
The bits that stick to your teeth are like cavity glue.
And: The acid in those drinks will melt away your enamel anyway.
Trust me, you WILL get cavities. All over. And your gums will loosen until your teeth become loose and rot from below.
Give it some 10 years.
Our body is extremely good at keeping up the balances in the face of what should be deadly. But not forever. Most age-related diseases are not from old age, but from decades of bad nutrition and bad behavior.
I know we've seen worse in science reporting, but 'overzealous' is not a helpful term to use in describing the immune system.
They still saying acid produced by bacteria is the underlying cause, so nothing new there, *but* they've identified a mismatch between the immune system's strategy for responding to the bacteria and the altered chemical environment created by said bacteria, and that insight potentially could prove very valuable in determining improved treatments.
I mean, you're not wrong, but you do sound like you're on drugs talking about it like that...
Thus speaketh an anonymous coward who has ignored the huge mass of scientific evidence to appear in recent years.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne...
Surface area and contact time.
If you literally gulp down Coke, it barely touches your teeth.
If you swill it around your mouth, you've increased the surface area and contact time by orders of magnitude.
If you chew a sweet for five minutes, holy hell, that's a lot of contact. If that sweet is sticky and can adhere to your teeth, even worse... it's literally inserting sugar into every tiny microscopic gap with the force of your tongue and can be in there for minutes and minutes and minutes. And that's *ONE* sweet.
Stop telling your kids off for gulping their drink. It'll do absolutely no harm to them. However, if they do the usual kid-thing of "huge cheeks full of drink, pouty lips to contain it all", they are slowly destroying their teeth.
And if they have sticky toffees, sticky gum-based sweets, etc. then they are doing orders-of-magnitude more damage than a whole can of Coke with each one.
Of course it's cumulative over time so many people are just fine, but it's better to have almost zero sugar cumulatively than lots of sugar, for many minutes, stuck to your teeth, cumulatively.
Go find it, you lazy coward. Google works. Weston A. Price published his findings 80 years ago and the data hasn't magically changed since. We didn't evolve with toothbrushes or sugar.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne...
"Americans" includes inner city denizens giving their babies Pepsi in their bottles. And hordes of recent immigrants. (Oh dear, he said something true, smelling salts please!)
Comparing the dental condition of both lands within reasonably educated polite society ... well, I'll go with what my eyes have seen.
(BTW, that's hilarious illustrating the article with royalty)
You are avoiding the issue. Experiments are being communicated in a way that is not correct. Articles are not making the uncertainties clear.
Well, I'm 31 and have yet to get a cavity.
I don't know how common or not that is. or what to make of that.
I guess I just take care of brushing and flossing regularly, no secret.
If it's caused by the immune system is it still a cavity, or is it tooth resorption?
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
This shoulda been FP. Stop slacking, slashdotters.
Someone had to do it.