Modifying mouth bacteria to remove cavities

Scott Alexander had a post about this a few months back considering a lot of the obvious follow-up questions people might have: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/defying-cavity-lantern-biow...

I haven't gone in for this, but I'm hoping it proves successful and drops in price. It certainly seems promising to me.

*Edit to clarify: it's a different company (unless they rebranded), but about the same bacteria.

A little bit of a double-edged sword, because I appreciate they can be a probiotic and avoid all the FDA red-tape, but on the other hand there are no guarantees of effectiveness. I can "gamble" $20 on some probiotic pills, but this is asking for $2k for no guarantee.

I have been very interested in hearing about this technology for at least 5 years.

> Lumina Probiotic is launching during Vitalia 2024, at a price point of $19,000. There are no follow-up costs. [1]

oof. it's cheaper to just deal with cavities.

[1] https://www.luminaprobiotic.com/faq

It's interesting that, qualitatively, my dental hygienist reports calculus-promoting bacteria tend to out-compete cavity-forming ones. Perhaps we should start with GM of calculus-promoting bacteria to produce less tartar and then do oral flora transplants.

That is too expensive. Its an interesting technology but it can't possibly cost this much and it wont meet its potential if this is the price they are going with.

I get my teeth cleaned every 3 months because I've had trouble with lichen planus. Costs me $270/yr, including the cost of dental insurance. 19000/270 is 70 years. I think I'll stick with going to the dentist more often.

Important note in the faq

"This strain doesn't do anything to protect against gum disease, or bad breath."