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Comment by ptrl600 | Hacker News Reader

Well until this stuff comes out I'll keep using smuggled FDA-unapproved Novamin toothpaste. Atonement for my neglect

How does NovaMin / calcium sodium phosphosilicate compare to toothpaste with nanohydroxyapatite in it?

It occludes dentinal tubules, helping reduce dentin hypersensitivity. It's a tooth-desensitizing agent helping people who are for example, very sensitive to very cold/hot temperature in their mouth.

There is evidence that it can foster enamel/dentin mineral gain, but head to head studies shows that it's comparable to regular fluoride toothpaste and not superior. E.g. In a randomized in-situ trial (Caries Research, 2017), adding 5% NovaMin to a 927-ppm SMFP toothpaste did not improve remineralization outcomes vs the same fluoride formula without NovaMin.

Also, you can find NovaMin in the US (e.g., NUPRO Sensodyne Prophylaxis Paste with NovaMin).

I don't know if this is everyone's experience, but you get a distinct feeling of smoothness after using it, unlike any other toothpaste. Since NovaMin reacts with saliva to remineralize the tooth you'd imagine it's a stronger bond than directly filling up crevices with nanohydroxyapatite, and studies seem to [slightly] confirm that.

anecdotal experience: my wife had somewhat botched dental filling proceedure. it probably damaged her teeth in some way and it became very sensitive for any fluids or foods. they tried to redo it, but it only increased sensitivity further.

i gave her apagard renamel (with nanohydroxyapatite ). after a few days sensitivity went down and after a few weeks it completely disappeared

PS. before apagard she used day to day novamin toothpaste. it didn't help

Same here. My dentist was impressed after a year of me using it.

Sensodyne?

I just learned about this 5 mins ago and did some basic research. Here's what I found:

- Sensodyne Repair and Protect contains 'NovaMin' (possibly only in some markets; check the ingredients!)

- NovaMin is the brand name for calcium sodium phosphosilicate

- It reacts with saliva to form a physical layer of hydroxyapatite on your teeth

- This layer blocks the tubules that trigger pain from temperature and such

- It also supports remineralization (how exactly?)

You have to get the European version of Sensodyne Repair and Protect to get NovaMin. It's not in the US formulation.

as the sibling comment notes, the Canadian version also has it:

https://www.jeancoutu.com/en/shop/categories/personal-care/o...

https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Sensodyne-Repair-Protect-Sensit...

Looks like you can get the versions with NovaMin in the US on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Sensodyne-Protect-Toothpaste-powered-...

Note the recent spate of 1 star reviews angry that what they received is not the Novamin version.

The German version also seems to have stannous fluoride instead of NovaMin, like in the US.

Mine says "NovaMin" right on the front. There are multiple types of Sensodyne.

Btw, what really drives me crazy is that Elmex sells multiple different sorts of tooth paste with the colors green and violett, each. How can a company confuse their customers so much that they buy a tooth whitener paste instead of a remineralizing one? Did the mistake twice...

The nova min version is called Clinical Repair in Germany

Thanks!

Stannous fluoride works well for me, how does it compare to NovaMin?

Please share your experience if you've tried both.

Can anyone explain why people in the USA aren’t allowed to buy this easily?

TLDR: regulations

The toothpaste maker wants to claim something like "Novamin is useful". In the EU this is treated as for cosmetics, so relatively low bar to clear. In the US this is treated as pharmaceutical, so a high bar to clear. The manufacturer has decided that passing that bar is not financially sensible for them.

The Canadian version I just bought also seems to have 5% NovaMin.

Would you know where to get NovaMin mouthwash?

hydroxyapatite is a mineral like your tooth, that's how it supports remineralization.

It's actually great stuff and works wonders for tooth sensitivity above and beyond fluoride shellac. I also order it from the more civilized world.

BioMin is available in the US and is similar, but I don't find it works better and I don't like that it doesn't have fluoride. (I live in an area without fluoride in the water)

Biomin F does have fluoride, but you need to import it.

Due to GSKs patents only repair and protect outside of the US has novamin in it.

You can buy it from overseas.

Because it keeps coming up there is an anti-Novamin crowd that says it’s useless and Biomin is the true re-enamelizer.

I used BioMin F for about a year, and I think it did something, but I'm not sure I'm qualified to evaluate its effectiveness.

Unfortunately it isn't actually available where I live (US), and I had to buy it from Canada... from a shop that hasn't had stock for more than a year now. I've tried ordering from other countries, but haven't found anyone else who will ship to the US.

I've tried the "BioMin Restore" toothpaste that is available in the US, and I don't feel like it's doing much of anything, but... again, not sure I'm qualified to evaluate.

If you have sensitive teeth both nHAP and novamin toothpastes help a lot there. I've tried both. nHAP is easier to get in the USA, there are several brands, for some reason some go nuts over the imported ones from Japan.

If you're going to use nHAP, get Apaguard from Japan. Their nHAP is rod shaped, not jagged. They were the first to make rod shaped nHAP and have been doing it for decades. It's not a great idea to introduce cheap/jagged nHAP into your mouth. Sharp nanoparticles tend to cause cancer.

Interesting. A very rudimentary web search begins suggesting that Biomin is the more suspicious of the two. It has a very weird Internet footprint of being this somewhat obscure-looking expensive "Health" product. I really can't find any recognizable sources on the product name. Maybe the obscurity is part of the exotic allure for some?

I used to use sensodyne for cold-sensitive teeth, but they changed ingredients to include something I’m now allergic to. Or I recently developed an allergy to whatever their unchanged ingredients are.

I have yet to find a replacement for it.

nanohydroxyapatite helps a lot with sensitive teeth, you can even find some brands that also have fluoride in it if you're worried about the nonfluroide versions

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7068624

I'm not sure what the takeaway is here? If I read that correctly, they only found one study and just reported their results? Is that because there are literally no studies on this worldwide? I find that very hard to believe.

A systematic review like this can be helpful, in that it identifies where there are gaps in the literature, and prevents hype - if some studies show evidence of effect, and others do not, even if there are only a few published studies then we know somthing new about the totality of the literature on the subject.

That said, this particular systematic review has a couple of issues (e.g. I can't find the precise inclusion / exclusion criteria, nor can I find that it has been pre-registered on Prospero or another database).

I have written a few systematic reviews where there is very little data already availabe, and we use them to explain to funders why we need to do further research on a given topic.

I know there's value to recording the selection process and all that but it's a little funny to have a review that ends up only including one study: at that point just give me a link, not a paper.

Admittedly it's possible I've been bamboozled

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