A chinese research team has developed a gel that can induce the growth of tooth enamel with a precise maintenance of the original structural complexity within 48 hours.
So, the Temporary Dental fillings may soon be a thing of the past.
Enamel is the hardest tissue in the human body and contains the highest percentage of minerals (at 96%). This translucent substance is approximately 2 millimeters thick.
As a highly mineralized biological tissue, enamel is perceived as a purely inorganic substance and cannot self-repair for lack of a bioorganic matrix including cells. Despite being the hardest tissue in the body, enamel becomes susceptible to degradation, especially by acids from food and drink. Once enamel is damaged, people will have cavities in teeth, which will lead to nightmarish pain.
Enamel remineralization is currently deemed as the most formidable challenge in the field of bionics. Previous endeavors to regrow enamel by using a range of materials such as composite resins, ceramics and amalgam failed to achieve permanent repair because of the imperfect compatibility between these foreign materials and the native enamel.
Now the Chienese Team has proposed a novel approach to tooth enamel regrowth. They found that mixing calcium and phosphate ions—two minerals which are found in enamel—with the chemical trimethylamine in an alcohol solution causes enamel to grow with the same structure as teeth.
When the mixture was applied to human teeth, it repaired the enamel layer to around 2.5 micrometres of thickness. It also achieved the same structure of natural enamel within 48 hours.
The discovery has not yet been proven to work in the “hostile environment” of the mouth, but experts say regrown tooth enamel may be tested in people in the near future.
News Source: Zhejiang University
