Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel
dental.washington.edu
dental.washington.edu
I want this so badly.
I've never had a cavity despite my poor dental hygiene habits and lack of dental practice visits but apparently I suffer from bruxism that can make half of my teeth hurt whenever I bite on anything harder than a wet noodle. Just now I brushed my teeth with a pain-numbing toothpaste and just the act of brushing my teeth made them hurt. Although sometimes I can go for some time without pain, it's been pretty much a constant in my life for the last years.
https://www.coredental.com.au/splints-dentist-recommend-one/
You dip them in hot water and then bite to form them, so they aren’t near your gag reflex.
I mainly used it because sometimes I woke up hitting my teeth together really hard (it hurt a lot) but it was mainly due to stress. I really try to avoid that now, if I fail I may go back to using it :(
These lozenges will be great to get. I have pretty strong enamel though as they give all kids regular fluoride treatments. It really helped for me. I didn't have a cavity until the age of 43.
This is why you want one fitted across all your teeth by a dentist. And made out of a solid material so it continues to fit the same way rather than sharper teeth pushing down further. That way it sits properly and balances all of the tooth-tooth forces.
Having said all that, mine developed a hairline fracture and eventually split in two, but actually sits a bit better as two pieces until I get a new one made in a month.
All for nothing. Splint, or mouth guard in North America, caused me to develop daytime bruxism and it moved my teeth in such a way that my back teeth didn't touch firmly, which my brain wanted to resolve by biting harder.
If it's my enamel or my TMJ, I guess I picked my TMJ. Grinding with the splint made my jaw hurt more.
I did find Meridol and Sensodyne Rapid Relief toothpastes listed on a national pharmacy's website that apparently contain stannous fluoride, so maybe I'll have to try those out at some point. I don't think I've ever tried either.
I’m sure I’ve written about it here before but it was wild how much the botox changed my quality of life to the point it was actually really upsetting to me at first. I had struggled for so long and I had to fight with insurance so much to get the botox covered (it was off-label at the time for TMJ, I think it’s approved now) and there had been a safe, simple, and highly effective solution that I sort of stumbled into out of sheer desperation, a lot of good luck, and a series of referrals on referrals on referrals.
Oh yeah, and much to my dentist & orthodontist’s delight, I stopped breaking my retainer in my sleep, stopped needing a mouth guard at night, and stopped needing special toothpaste for my sensitive teeth. But those improvements pale in comparison to the literal whole-body benefits.
I know it’s not going to be a magic bullet solution for everyone the way it was for me but the improvement was so night and day I have an almost compulsive need to bring it up whenever someone mentions they suffer from bruxism or migraines just in case it can put an end to their misery, too. So if you haven’t looked into it yet the potential upside makes it well worthwhile to bring it up with your doctor and/or dentist.
Or, if you happen to be in Massachusetts, give Dr. David Keith at MGH a call.
I’ve found other examples of ailments with relatively inexpensive or simple solutions that are unknown to many.
I think many people suffer to varying degrees simply because they don’t know some important piece of information.
Sometimes historical solutions overwhelm new or lesser known yet effective solutions and this prevents people from living better lives.
Sort of like how stack overflow is overrun with answers conflating jquery with JavaScript.
With health stuff, I think sometimes the friction and expense of seeing a professional prevents people from getting answers. Though sometimes these folks don’t have the most up to date or best information either.
It is almost like we need wikihow style answers for a far broader spread over life’s many questions.
In some cases like parent’s, this can be life-changing information. And while the procedure is not free the knowledge that motivates one to find a way to greatly improve one’s own outlook is.
I think my doctor was somewhat unique (at least at the time) for doing the temple injections to treat TMJ and I think the temple is one of the injection locations used now when someone gets Botox for migraines. I know there were additional possible injection sites he used for more severe cases or where there wasn’t complete relief but I can’t recall where they were because I didn’t end up needing them.
How frequently does it need to be repeated?
It’s my understanding that Botox weakens the muscle and people who clench/grind their teeth have very strong muscles so you kind of keep going until the muscle is atrophied(?) down to a normal strength. So I would imagine the earlier you go for treatment the shorter the amount time you’d require treatment and vice versa. For more severe cases there’s actually a visible difference in your face, too. It’s too subtle for most people to notice but I can look at photos of myself and tell you whether it was before or after I started botox. When your jaw muscles are so strong it makes your face more square.
Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about: https://www.realself.com/photos/botox/botox-for-tmj#media-ph...
Yours,
Guy at the end of his enamel
Quitting laptops and using a proper desktop, or a laptop stand plus an external keyboard, was like toggling off the bruxism switch. It went off in a week. Plus, I stopped suffering from horrible migraines.
In order to repair your enamel a bit and keep what you have you may want to try toothpastes and creams that contain enamel-like ceramics. I've had spectacular results with a combination of calcium salts, fluoride and hydroxyapatite and ceramics (Novamin). There are better things to add up into the mix right now, such as self-assembling peptide scaffolds.
I've had all of this for years (more like decades) plus different additional symptoms and got diagnosed last year. The ongoing treatment is not for the faint of heart but symptoms are on the retreat since.
PS: I've grown up in rural Germany and also had close contact to cattle as a kid etc.
Would such an infection be able to explain chronic symptoms over a 1-2 year period?
Edit: forgot to answer your question. yes, in my case it was episodes of joint pain, neck stiffness, lightheadedness, heavy fatigue, numb fingertips, skin problems, heavy mood swings and more with symptom free times in between for more than 20 years - often triggered by stress but not always. And the symptoms got worse with me growing older.
The condition is not easy to diagnose and you need the right specialist, there's lots of snake oil out there and treatment is longterm and without a guarantee to cure 100%.
One ENT told me I had "allergies" when I said I could hear my left eye move in my head and he pretended he didn't find an Weber test extreme left lateralization. Another two ENTs found I have repairable SCDS as confirmed by high resolution CT and audiological testing.
Doctors who don't listen to you or BS you cannot be trusted with your life. Dump them and don't feel bad about it because they gave up on you first. There is no reward for loyalty. It's only your life.
These symptoms specifically: some at least, I believe. Lyme disease is fairly well known for having severe lasting effects though, years of issues even after treatment is not uncommon at all.
Most people have back problems, so that could just be concomitant.
I used to live in an area with endemic Lyme disease, but contracting that would've presented all kind of other horrible symptoms.
I also have SCDS, likely from pushing too forcefully on the loo, loud noises, air pressure extreme changes, high blood pressure/swings, and congenital thinness as confirmed on CT. The fix require a middle fossa craniotomy approach.
I have not done botox. What i did was jaw relaxation exersices and physiotherapy. Its helped a lot.
I have a compulsive need to bring this up as well, I didnt understand it all was happening to me and starting to treat it has changed my life.
I suffer horrific migraines. One day after someone mentioned TMJ. I started massage various points around jaw. Found an incredibly painful spot. Worked on it over 3 days until it stopped hurting. Migraines stopped. Several months later they started again. That same spot was bad again. Same results.
Botox is an another way to deal with it.
I chipped / broke half of a crowded-out front tooth one night a month or so ago. My teeth sometimes chatter on their own at night.
My jaw is compact and massively internally-hypertrophic (reinforced) from a lifetime of bruxism. Also, masseters are jacked, teeth roots are extremely long, and my neck muscles are hypertrophic (no neck) too. I wonder if this is an evolutionary adaptation of a "fighter" body plan.
The problem is that the stuff with NovaMin is not typically available in the US. I just searched Amazon and found that they do sell small tubes of the real thing for about $14 each. Looks like it is coming from Canada.
https://www.amazon.com/Sensodyne-Protect-Whitening-Toothpast...
Here is a 2013 article:
https://ceramics.org/ceramic-tech-today/biomaterials/gsk-dro...
PS. Novamin is Calcium Sodium Phosphosilicate as the active ingredient.
Another option for leveling up on toothpaste is using those that contain micronized hydroxyapatite. Options here are Carifree or the Japanese brand Apagard available on eBay or Amazon. Biomin’s formula is proprietary but it might contain hydroxyapatite in part.
I stopped randomly getting cavities after using xylitol gum occasionally and brushing with these various toothpastes, n=1.
There also exist a variety of oral probiotics that claim to rebalance mouth flora away from species that cause cavities.
While no dentist ever told me about any of these options, at least Carifree is starting to market through US dentists.
wow, just found this where they compared HAP to fluoride and found no difference: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41405-019-0026-8
I have novamin. I think it makes my teeth feel different. May be placebo.
A lot of people swear by HAP, novamin, etc. I suspect it all comes down to increased oral care and diligence though!
I definitely feel something too, like the surface is slicker.
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https...
All prices under €4, but of course shipping rates are for local delivery and I have no idea if the sellers can ship abroad, most of them might not even speak a word of English, however here they are; making quite a big order would defeat the costs for shipping to the US, which usually are high.
(tooth chat at 5:10, but the whole video is interesting)
My dentist turned me on to Colgate Prevident and the regular Sensodyne fluoride pastes but never that one.
Has anyone tried those newer Japanese hydroxyappetite toothpastes? They aren't based on hydrogen peroxide. I recently started using this a few days ago.
https://www.amazon.com/Apagard-Premio-toothpaste-nanohydroxy...
I really wish they'd hurry this up.
It's too late for those teeth but maybe I can save others.
I've been having some success with toothpaste with NovaMin (has to be purchased outside the US) and mouthwash that contains Dipotassium Oxalate Monohydrate. That is OTC in the US but you have to find the ones with it.
If someone had told me to remove the teeth because of the pain, I would have said yes.
I’d at least make sure that they tested your bite before you move forward with extraction.
I was to the point where eating a room temperature banana in mid summer was too cold for my teeth. My dentist figured out it was the acid I was coughing up getting on my teeth.
I also grind my teeth but that's more mechanical the acid affects all surfaces of my teeth. Sensodyne toothpaste or similar helps a bit if I remember to not rinse it off.
I don't think so.
I've had tooth sensitivity for a while, and this tootpaste fixed the problem for me
Make sure you look into having something at night so your teeth doesnt wear further :)
Some things I’ve tried that will help:
* Fitted mouth guard (splint). This reduces tooth wear and muscle pain
* Optirinse fluoride rinse. You can use this every day to reduce sensitivity
* Sensodyn with novamin. Remineralizes
* Face massage. I actually had a lot of tooth pain that was just referred pain. I grinded, my jaw tightened, this muscle tension hurt my teeth. When I pressed certain areas in my jaw and relaxed the muscle I felt the pain trigger, then dissipate. Some professional massage got rid of it fully.
How old are you?
I was the same until 34 years of age, that's when I bit down on a peanutbutter brittle piece from haagen daazs ice cream and broke my first tooth. After that the visits just piled on.
Now I have one root totally dug out and filled in, (root canal?) and one small hole filled in. I floss daily and brush daily now. I take it seriously. Don't be like me, take it seriously now!
The worst part isn't even breaking the tooth or the resulting surgery, but rather it takes a year or more before things are back to normal with an implant (they backfill the extraction site with bone powder that acts as a scaffold to regrow the jaw and prevent sinking, which takes a minimum of six months, then they install the screw the implant attaches to and a temporary healing cap to protect the screw while it heals, and then wait another six or more months before the final implant can be installed).
PLEASE take dental health seriously!
This is a common condition whereby bacteria get between the gum and teeth. It starts with sticky "plaque" from food and saliva, which hardens into tartar, which can get below the gumline. Bacteria grows in the tartar, which in time causes inflammation. At this point the damage isn't permanent and will be fixed by a dental clean. The inflammation causes swollen gums, which may be sore when brushed, and in the longer term the bone around your teeth recedes away from the inflammation. The receding bone leaves gaps around the teeth, which exposes their roots, making them sensitive, and the gaps exacerbate the condition by providing the bacteria a difficult to clean safe harbour. At this point the damage is becoming permanent, but treatment can prevent it from becoming worse. Left untreated over a period of years, the bone recedes so much that your teeth become loose, eventually falling out. End game is false teeth or equivalent. It's possible for the swollen gums to cover up the other symptoms by the swelling gums temporarily filling the gaps left by receding bone. The disease progresses over many years, so it's easy to ignore until there are permanent effects, but early treatment (a dental clean) will make it go away.
In the years before permanent damage the only symptom can be an occasional gum soreness which goes away after a few days and doesn't seem worth worrying about.
As far as I can make out, brushing delays Periodontitis by slowing tartar buildup, but over a period of many years it's not enough and one has to eventually go to a dentist to get the tartar scraped off, so Periodontitis causing bacteria have less places to live. Basically no dental visits over a period of many years with a typical diet = Periodontitis with permanent effects.
I too have bruxism that is wearing down some molars severely. My grandfather wore his teeth down to about nothing.
My dentist suggested I get Invisalign for tooth crowding, veneers for small canines, and a mouth guard I can't tolerate at present). If had a workable mouth guard, I would do this lozenge thing. I feel sensation in my teeth and gums constantly.
I never did whitening because I always thought the risks were too great.
I wonder how white?
I'm a bit nervous about having those over-whitened glow-in-the-dark teeth, that you sometimes see. Memories of that Friends episode, too.
(Actually i started making cappucinos first and stopped when i started putting on weight from them lol)
I'm not a stickler for metric vs. imperial (I use both), but "cup" is a terrible terrible unit that needs to die. Use grams for anything coffee-related.
Yes. Or more to the point, all of them are; not least because of the existence of all the others.
I know it's rarely going to actually matter that much even when I try to follow a recipe (which to the letter and quantity at least, I generally don't) whether '1 cup' is US legal, Imperial (UK but not common), metric, Canadian, US customary, or any of the other country variations, but it's still infuriating!
I resisted owning any at all for a long time, but eventually gave in thinking it would be a handy way of having volumetric 1:1 ratios if nothing else (e.g. as much tomato as onion) and double as 'a cup' for following American recipes. But which 'cup' did I get? (Bought in the UK.) Nuts. I then realised I already had cup marks on a glass measure (that I'd only used ex ante for millilitres, like a sane person) - sure enough, different 'cup'.
For some recipes those kind of measures are helpful though, so I wouldn't get rid of them. I'll always have a cup handy (a British cup is, handily, the same amount most people would make for a nice cup of tea:) but I won't always have scales.
Anyway, point is I only drink one cup a day now and have become a closet coffee snob.
Welcome to the snobbery! I went from “I refuse to order a coffee with more than two words” to super opinionated and picky, and now my rules are just don’t be insufferable and accept when my preferences aren’t reasonably available.
French press "muddiness" is not invariant but rather a function of filter size and type. It's the equivalent of steak doneness, use the appropriate equipment for the result you want.
Espresso is fundamentally different than pour-over. Pour-over is only using atmospheric pressure and espresso is about only not using atmospheric pressure. Pour-over is closer to drip than espresso.
Drip coffee is actually just pour-over coffee made with a machine, and using a warming burner is not required.
How good your coffee is depends not at all on the method used, and anyone telling you it does is just encoding their preference. Goodness of coffee is a combination of acidity, sweetness, bitterness, ratio of water to non-water compounds, time spent, and enjoyment of the experimentation. This combination is achieved by varying grind size, water temperature, bean roast, contact time, and experimenter time.
I don’t think this contradicts anything I said.
> Espresso is fundamentally different than pour-over. Pour-over is only using atmospheric pressure and espresso is about only not using atmospheric pressure.
To clarify, I meant that the distinction is that the water flows through the coffee in drip/pour over by gravity (as you said, atmospheric pressure) but with espresso it flows through with applied pressure.
> Pour-over is closer to drip than espresso.
> Drip coffee is actually just pour-over coffee made with a machine, and using a warming burner is not required.
This is pretty much what I was saying, with the distinction being that most people making drip do have a burner and that’s what makes their coffee taste worse.
> How good your coffee is depends not at all on the method used, and anyone telling you it does is just encoding their preference.
This is my first major point of disagreement besides how you chose to interpret things. For most people, the method their coffee is made makes a difference because people have shit to do, even baristas making it for them. A half assed French press will taste dramatically different than a half assed Mr Coffee will taste dramatically different than a push button espresso machine.
> Goodness of coffee is a combination of acidity, sweetness, bitterness, ratio of water to non-water compounds, time spent, and enjoyment of the experimentation. This combination is achieved by varying grind size, water temperature, bean roast, contact time, and experimenter time.
And even then, it’s a matter of preference, and might vary on occasion. And even then, you might encounter someone telling you your particular taste is wrong even if it delights you. Such as when I had the displeasure of ordering my absolute favorite latte I’ve ever had—I ordered a delicious natural process, the barista insisted I change my order twice and complained the whole time he was making it because the milk would ruin it, but I loved it.
I’m not trying to be a jerk, but there’s a reason people find coffee snobs insufferable.
(It has it's uses though, it's not that common in the UK, but I find it vastly better for making paneer for example - homogenised milk splits to a billion tiny wispy solids that don't set together well, leaving a crumbly texture; non-homogenised gives a much better mix and far bigger bits that hold together well.)
I know lots of people love aeropress and if you’re curious I’d say give it a try and see if you like it :)
The effect probably came to be known because darker roaster coffee is less dense. So if you are measuring your coffee by volume (i.e. eyeballing it) and not mass, for the same volume the darker the coffee the less caffeine it has. But per gram of coffee, it’s pretty much the same.
(I suppose truly natural is also unhealthy, but my point is perfectly healthy teeth can be - and are, without other non-health-improving intervention - less than pure white.)
It doesn't hurt for you. Some people, including myself, have had root canals that have almost caused worse pain than when I was in the ICU.
And to be clear, the pain has been after my root canal, not during (even though ostensibly, the nerve is gone). My worst root canal was infected, but the endodontist claims that it usually doesn't cause that much pain (perhaps, but not for some people).
My mother and uncle have had the same issues. My father has never had issues.
A dentist finally slowed down. Noticed my tears. Asked. Had a conversation. Tried freezing me in other places. Worked perfectly. She guessed that my nerves are anatomically weird.
I'd find that more painful than the treatment.
Eventually one dentist suggested trying the injection 15-20 mins before the filling started. I'd go in, get a jab, then go back out and wait while they saw another patient.
Now there is no pain at all. I could literally fall asleep in the chair. What a difference.
Medical care seems to have a lot of weird country-specific traditions, e.g. in Hungary it's apparently common to fill small kids' healthy teeth if the groves are too deep so they're simpler to clean and they don't get cavities.
I had never heard of such a thing before moving here, and I genuinely can't tell if it's a brilliant innovation or an insane post-soviet tradition that needs to go away.
Having experienced both (frozen and not frozen), I can't tell what's better. The feeling when they're digging in the tooth without freezing isn't great but it's not painful either; the feeling when they put a needle in your gum to inject the product isn't great either but then you don't feel the procedure. I'd say it's different but equivalent in terms of discomfort.
I've never heard this called "freezing". I assume you're being injected with lidocaine, the dentist's non-psychoactive best friend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidocaine
This family of molecules is well known for causing numbness in motor and sensor nerves; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEI4qSrkPAs
Filling in grooves needs to go away. It will change the bite/shift the jaw which theoretically can lead to other problems. Not to mention, the grooves are there to help provide a grinding surface for vegetable matter, etc. If you make your teeth perfectly flat, they won't be as effective. Making your teeth flatter is actually reducing/damaging the effectiveness of your teeth. If it was a good idea herbivores would have teeth as flat as a tabletop.
Where I live, as a kid my dentist filed the tips of my canines down a little. Why? Who knows, they weren't bothering me before. It was something that was decided upon without consulting me.
I am just going to have the tooth pulled. They argued either try to save it, or just have it taken out.
I dread dentists, and especially endodontists/root canals.
There are enough reports of severe pain and I want no part of it, unless I go the expensive sleep dentistry route.
But the second time I just had my doctor do it with his anesthetic, and it wasn't much worse than a filling for me. A little unpleasant but not unbearable.
On the negative side, either that or some other dental work I had done close to the same time must have damaged a nerve and now I haven't been able to really taste anything in the front half of my tongue the past three years (still can on the back of my tongue, at least, thankfully).
I'd think the bigger concern with a root canal is the not-insignificant likelihood they will break your jaw.
Or not get the whole root out, causing an infection and need to get the procedure done again. (Never have a dentist do your root canal, folks)
Usually tools are a bit more precise, materials are a bit more stringently regulated, and everything is typically well sterilized but when it comes to the physical mechanics, they're about the same. Drills, saws, hammers, all that good stuff.
The main difference is you're usually not watching it for a variety of reasons unlike many dental procedures. And the tools are in the hands of a literal surgeon.
It turns out the things dentists use when they're not allowed to use drills are chisels.
But yeah, sectioning a tooth with chisels sounds pretty bad. I think I would try to avoid that situation. I'm not sure why a dentist would even have an instrument that could be described as a "chisel".
Nothing will eclipse the barbarism and "effectiveness" of spinal disc treatments such as spinal fusions.
Baking soda is used as a cooking ingredient and shouldn't be too risky, but don't go overboard... bit of discussion on the IC / BPS aspect in the two citations below (including risks):
[Effects of urine alkalinization with sodium bicarbonate orally on lower urinary tract symptoms in female patients: a pilot study](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00192-017-3492-...)
[Urine alkalization improves the problems of pain and sleep in hypersensitive bladder syndrome](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24224617)
UPDATE: Also check edathamil toothpaste as I mentioned in a below comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27329165
The benefit of it being in your water is that you get that constant little flush of it
[1] [Effects of a Novel Dental Gel on Plaque and Gingivitis: A Comparative Study](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2d87n65m)
FWIW, brushing is the more important part (even without paste it probably does most of the good), but modern toothpastes are better than baking soda because they are more abrasive and because they contain fluoride. Baking soda's main utility for toothbrushing is its abrasiveness, but it's a little too soft to be optimal.
To get the most out of your toothpaste's fluoride, spit out your toothpaste and do not immediately rinse. You don't want to swallow large amounts of toothpaste, of course, but the film does more good than harm -- https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/how-to-keep-your-t... "Don't rinse your mouth immediately after brushing, as it'll wash away the concentrated fluoride in the remaining toothpaste."
https://tmedweb.tulane.edu/pharmwiki/doku.php/ph_effect_on_d...
And yes, you definitely don't want to overdo it:
So... overall good or bad?
But even if you took too little, the drug may get broken down in other ways before you get rid of it for good.
I think that as terrible as chewing chalk is, calcium is better than sodium.
I also prefer the baking soda over TUMS because it usually makes me burp, which feels soo good after it works its magic >_<
1. It can be counterproductive if you’re experiencing acid reflux, particularly if you’re laying down. The acid neutralization produces a lot of gas (you’ll burp a lot), which can flush acid up your esophagus before it can be neutralized. It’s awful and packaging that discusses its antacid usage explicitly recommend against use with reflux and heartburn caused by overeating for a reason.
2. Excessive usage can also be counterproductive. The more you regulate your internal acidity, the more your body will try to find balance, and you risk over-producing digestive acids even without triggers if you use this regularly.
I’m relating both from painful experience. By all means, keep some bicarb handy! Just don’t overdo it.
You seem to be full of bad unsubstantiated health advice, for some reason. This is, of course, not true.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112564...
> Stomach cells that make acid multiply over several weeks of exposure to a PPI in an effort to overcome the drug's effect. When the PPI is stopped, they pour out more acid than ever.
Relief in the stomach requires more acid, not less. A shot of ACV (apple cider vinegar) and half teaspoon of honey will alleviate/cure indigestion in a few minutes. Received this advice from a naturopathist, and on the rare occasion that indigestion occurs, it works perfectly.
This is the most effective addition to a mouth cleansing routine I've found. I may apply this wet baking soda "paste" multiple times a day, especially after eating or when I feel a rise in mouth acidity. Also, when I happen to get acid reflux or know I'm going to throw up I pre-emptively keep baking soda in my mouth to protect my teeth from acidity.
Being honest:
1. I started balding at a relatively normal age (first signs late 20s). At first I welcomed it, then I got a little self conscious (and wished for greys instead, those are finally coming into my beard and I couldn’t be happier).
2. I’ve had dental health issues since childhood. My family couldn’t afford regular dental care and I’ve always worried about it.
3. My teeth have rapidly deteriorated in my late 30s. I can’t currently afford any dental care and I already know I’m looking at drastic solutions when I can.
Having both a thin head of hair and a mouth full of trash, I know what I’d prioritize given the chance to magically turn back time time or scientifically reverse the worst of my biology. And it’s not my hair.
Shaving/trimming/styling baldness is trivial. My mouth is an unavoidable turnoff, a constant terrible personal experience, and an ongoing health risk.
It’s bonkers to me that there’s more money in solving hair than solving teeth, even though I know it’s true.
You can close your mouth., but can’t stop someone from looking at your head.
You can surgically replace all your teeth with perfect replicas and no one will be able to tell otherwise except in how perfect they are. The cost for this isn’t low, but nor is it unobtainable. I bet $10k in Eastern Europe gets you nice teeth for the rest of your life.
There is just no great option for hair. Even with infinite money like Musk or Bezos, you have plugs or nothing.
But... if this enamel deal helps you, I’m glad!
Yeah I can close my mouth. And suffer. And let it keep rotting, crossing my fingers that related health impacts don’t get to me before I can pay a car’s value to get health care. Or people can look at my bald head and... nothing meaningful happened.
I appreciate your kindness in expressing this contrarian view, but it’s not helpful.
That sounds like wishful thinking, if it were true there wouldn't be a giant market in covering up hair loss.
Advertising makes us do things we might not otherwise do, is what I'm saying.
I was really annoyed at him for a while because I had moved heaven and earth for him to help him screen into the highly competitive vision trial. But... his life, his choice. Even though he made a dumb one, imo.
Maybe he chose what he thought would work.
Well, in software terms, you're describing a monolithic architecture. A single cavity would destroy the whole thing. You'd probably have to replace the choppers more frequently as your skull grows into adulthood, or we would have to be born with larger jaws that don't need to grow as much as we mature.
There is also the matter of how evolvable the platform would be. As a species, we're in the process of losing our wisdom teeth, and I suspect that would be harder to do if the skull/jaw/gum/tooth platform was... more tightly coupled, less modular.
I myself never had any wisdom teeth, and kept a couple of my milk teeth into my 40s before one had to be replaced with a crown, and the other just fell out when the root dissolved. Human dentition has a lot of variability.
Still, birds did it (as have other species over the Earth's long evolutionary history), so it isn't an insoluble challenge, but it would be a rather more radical change than just fusing teeth together.
That being said, even if this worked, it's not like it's instant, so you still have to be careful with your teeth. I wonder how this differs from novamin, which supposedly does the same thing and you can already purchase now.
I’ve only recently learned you aren’t supposed to rinse your mouth after brushing!
Wait, what? Where did you learn that?
Google it and you’ll see! I asked my wife about and she concurred that she doesn’t rinse but does get her toothbrush wet while brushing.
When I lived in Morocco, however, it was the opposite.
Moroccan food is some of the best in the world, but they have sugar in everything. Their mint tea is something that should come with an insulin injector. They buy these giant bricks of sugar, wrapped in blue paper, and just drop them in the pot.
When many Moroccans smile, it looks like a brown picket fence.
Did I mention that Moroccan food is awesome?
The research is still nascent and inconclusive, though. Here’s an interesting study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17263856/.
> Conclusions: The results suggest that chewing gum with xylitol or sorbitol/maltitol can reduce the amount of dental plaque and acid production in saliva in schoolchildren, but only the xylitol-containing gum may also interfere with the microbial composition.
Again paraphrasing and dramatizing, but you get the idea.
So my mom never gave me anything with sugar. To this day I don't eat any sweets and I have no cavities or tooth problems. I eat ice cream once a year, and mostly because people seem to like shaming me for not liking it. I always just have a couple of bites.
Anyways my teeth are in great shape.
I have always had a sweet tooth. And while fortunately I dont have diabetes or similar. I've developed IBS and other gut ailments.
Me neither. I ate candy and chocolate when I was a kid. I still do now 50 years later. Never had a problem with my teeth.
The goal is to starve the streptococcus mutans bacteria in your mouth. Since that lives off sugar and starch, you both (a) rinse your mouth with a bactericidal (b) brush teeth, tongue, and gums after ingesting any sugar or starch.
The downside is excessive bactericidal use or brushing can damage your mouth tissues and teeth.
Another approach I had heard about but have no further info was to be vaccinated against S. mutans, so presumably your saliva would attack it somehow. I don't understand the mechanism here.
In the meantime, I use a prescription dose of fluoride toothpaste daily to harden the hydroxyapatite in my mouth.
Given that most people don't lose all of the enamel of any of their teeth it seems like there wouldn't be any point of going to a dentist. By the time you're getting the age where you'd even think about dentures, this treatment would completely reverse all tooth decay no?
Where I think this would really shine is with receding gums. It'll be able to slowly add protecting to a part of the teeth that has absolutely no protection. That will help "clog" the pores and reduce sensitivity as well as likeliness of a cavity.
So while this will be a great thing for a lot of people it will likely be another tool in a dental professional's belt more than anything.
> Fluoride is a mineral that can prevent tooth decay from progressing. It can even reverse, or stop, early tooth decay.
[0] https://www.mouthhealthy.org/en/fluoride-superhero
[1] https://www.nidcr.nih.gov/health-info/tooth-decay/more-info/...
Most common is prevident 5000
Plus, it really doesn't matter how well you brush and floss. There's always something for the hygienist to remove. Which, I can only assume prevents this lozenge from actually doing anything.
I suspect that without a plaque removal step, these lozenges could contribute to plaque mineralization into dental calculus.
> Review shows that Novamin has significantly less clinical evidence to prove its effectiveness as a remineralization agent in treating both carious and non-carious lesion. Hence, better designed clinical trials should be carried out in the future before definitive recommendations can be made.
Water flossers are advertised as being as effective as floss. However, it turns out studies on floss haven't borne out either.
Indeed, this product targets sensitivity which is exactly what Novamin does (by remineralizing those tiny holes permanently, versus traditional sensitivity products that simply "clog" them temporarily).
Note that Novamin-containing Sensodyne is an overseas thing that you have to import. For whatever reason they didn't seek FDA approval in the US so the product there is sans it.
Last year, I tried a new version with whitening and after a couple of weeks my teeth started hurting all day long. It took me a couple of days until I made the connection.
I stopped using that and went back to what is being sold (here in Mexico) as Sensodyne Original.
Apparently every toothpaste brand has a number of proprietary compounds that, according to their own research, is the biggest thing since flouride. Sensodyne has Novamin, I don't know the name of Colgates, but I am sure they list it on one of their websites.
Why HN has taken to Novamin, I don't know. Maybe it is because it was taken off the American market?
Anyway, it doesn't seem like Novamin makes a real difference:
According to a 2020 literature review,
> ... the objective of this review is to find out the current evidence available on the use of Novamin as an agent for remineralization.
> ... and at 6 months’ time point the p-value is 0.81 concluding that there are no significant difference of remineralization process obtained by using traditional toothpaste and Novamin.
There is nothing like Novamin among other toothpaste brands. Novamin has long existed as a bone regeneration treatment, with a very proven mode of action. The inventor spun it off and GSK bought the company and made it exclusive to Sensodyne. This isn't a company that made some fun name on a method of fluoride.
It doesn't exist formally in the US (or at least it didn't) because FDA rules would make it fall under a medical treatment and a toothpaste isn't possibly worth the process and bureaucratic overhead.
>Anyway, it doesn't seem like Novamin makes a real difference
That is a study of studies, and its conclusion isn't that there is no "real difference", but that there is a need for more clinical trials, which is an enormous difference.
Because there is little demonstrated proof of Novamin specifically in regards to teeth. It is largely theoretical.
But for what it's worth, I've used it for a bit over a year and now have zero sensitivity and my teeth are demonstratably much whiter. My own anecdotal experience is very positive, though maybe I'll have throat cancer or a third eye or something eventually.
Almost twenty years after this compound was developed into toothpaste, the best we can show in peer reviewed research is “inconclusive” when it’s used in toothpaste and you consider that a big win? I consider that “doesn’t seem to make much of a difference”.
Maybe it’s the novamin that helped you. Maybe it is one of the other compounds. Regular Sensodyne is a toothpaste for sensitive teeth, after all. Maybe you just started brushing more carefully. I did when I got my pack of “Sensodyne whitening repair & protect deep repair” toothpaste. That tube was almost double a regular Sensodyne, which is already an expensive brand.
Novamin is caught in a classic consumer product study quagmire. It's a proprietary, IP-wrapped solution. This leaves extraordinarily few people with an interest in proving its efficacy. Who is going to pay to study it? And the answer is that only people with a strong financial interest in its effectiveness are willing to study it, and those studies have little credibility due to bias.
The vast majority of consumer products you use have no peer reviewed research behind them for the same reason.
But we know its method of function, and the theory behind its operation. People using the product often find reduced sensitivity (I went from really bad sensitivity to no sensitivity) and a whitening effect. Eh, good enough for me.
And it's interesting that this submission is about a product that has a virtually identical method of operation - calcium and phosphorous ions.
I'm not suggesting some conspiracy. Just that market motivations might be misaligned.
When do you do it though? Doesn’t it undermine the brushing if you eat or drink coffee within an hour afterwards?
Or does it not matter and you brush first thing in the morning?
[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41405-019-0026-8
What drives me wild is I floss twice a day, brush three times a day with the daintiest grip you’ve ever seen.
Every time I go to the dentist, recession.
Meanwhile my spouse brushes once a day, maybe flosses occasionally and has never had recession or a cavity.
This is a wildly novel approach being applied orally.
I'd love for this to work, but they're relying on the fact this doesn't interact with other bodily tissues.
Any other recommendations for my situation? I can't brush agressively due to receding gums. I use a chlorhexidine solution regularly, which helps preventing inflammation/aphthae in the mouth, which I used to have quite often prior to discovering CHX. And no, dialing down the diet coke is unfortunately not possible for me. ;)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfr%C3%A9d_R%C3%A9nyi#Quotati...
[1] https://espiredental.com/is-seltzer-really-bad-for-your-teet...
The caffeine content of Coke is relatively low (only about a third or fourth of coffee, and lower than other cola products), which makes it practical for me to sip it all day. I guess I'm as much addicted to the taste as to the caffeine.
I'm still waiting for Ocumetics to deliver on their bionic eyes promises or risug to deliver on reversible semi permanent male contraceptives.
https://www.regeneratenr5.co.uk/products/advanced-toothpaste
On Regenerate NR5, there seems to be skepticism on Reddit. This analysis looks solid:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dentistry/comments/2afh74/has_anyon...
It suggests they’re using fairly standard ingredients that are present in many toothpastes.
Caveat emptor..
Discover more at r/peptides
This grad-student/researcher just handed over a multi-million dollar business to Amazon in exchange for $100k towards the research. Why on Earth would anyone sign over 100% ownership of their idea, just to be able to test their idea? I guess he thought it would look good on his resume as begs a company for a job after graduation?
Who owns the IP if I join Amazon Catalyst?[1]
Amazon Catalyst is a place to see your idea come to fruition without the risk of starting a company on your own. As such, the IP that is developed in Amazon Catalyst is property of Amazon.[1]
Also, the work wouldn't necessarily exist without the funding.
I don't remember the licensing terms for Catalyst specifically, but they are fairly aggressive, as far as these things go, to my recollection.
> For the avoidance of doubt as between Sponsor and Participants/Teams, all Submissions created by Participants/Teams will remain the property of the Participant/Team except to the extent a Participant/Team incorporated elements in their Submission owned by Sponsor, but the Competition Entities will have the rights to use the Submissions described herein. By submitting a Submission in this Competition, each Participant/Team warrants and represents that he or she owns, or otherwise has the right to use, all of the intellectual and industrial property rights in and to the Submission. Further, each Participant/Team hereby grants the Competition Entities a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to use, review, assess, test and otherwise analyze your Submission in connection with this Competition.
TLDR: It's your IP, but we can use it in connection with this Competition.
That is not a business, just an idea. The value of ideas (unproven, unimplemented) is ZERO. The fact that someone was willing to pay $100k for it is absolutely amazing and a huge service to the society.
I think the extraordinary claim is to pretend to know the value of an idea upfront. Very few people (Venture Capitalists, business investors, etc) try that and they fail more often than they succeed.
Show me someone who can reliably predict the idea success rate and I will show you a billionaire!
In short, I am saying: "He must have known better than us dumb commenters on the Internet, we must respect his decision, he could've done a lot worse."
What point are you arguing?
So I’ll have to say I’m highly skeptical about “checking your sodium balance”.