Oral Hygiene Goes High-Tech

Back when I was a kid -- all a person had to do to control the outbreak of cavities and maintain a healthy mouth was brush regularly, floss and rinse. I'm still convinced having a knockout smile isn't too much more complicated than that, but for the rest of you - don't worry: oral hygiene is going high-tech. Check this out and see if these latest dental breakthroughs don't make you smile more:

According to ScienceDaily.com, scientists at the University of Alberta in Canada have found a way to re-grow human dental tissue. When I first heard of this I was convinced it was another stem-cell breakthrough. After all, scientists are using stem cell technology to grow everything from breasts to heart valves. But no, this treatment -- which has been tested on humans -- uses Low Intensity Pulsed UltraSound or LIPUS in the form of a computer chip that fits directly into the mouth and stimulates the formation of new dental matter. The treatment -- according to an article on Colgate.com -- means the tiny device will be able to fit comfortably inside a patient's mouth while packed in biocompatible materials. And because dentists can use LIPUS to re-grow the root of a tooth, a patient can maintain the integrity of his/her own tooth rather than having a foreign object in their mouth.

An article in Medical Technology Business Europe (www.mtbeurope.info), the device is aimed at people experiencing dental root resorption -- a common injury to dental tissue caused by diseases and endocrine disturbances that can lead to a breakdown of the root structure of a tooth. Injury from wearing orthodontic braces in particular also causes progressive root resorption, limiting the time that braces can be worn.

According to medindia.com, with approximately 5 million people in North America wearing orthodontic braces, the market size for the device could be about 1.4 million people - making the venture more than profitable.

Meanwhile for those individuals who just don't feel brushing and flossing are the keys to a bright smile, a "Cavity Vaccination" may be the cure: according to an article in the May edition of Infection and Immunity (www.iai.asm.org), researchers are currently...well...researching the possibility of a vaccine that may one day prevent cavities.

The vaccine -- which for right now goes by the name of MU1140 -- is being developed by Oragenics (www.oragenics.com) a small Florida biotech company dedicated to researching and developing various antibody mediating therapies for human infections and other conditions, with primary focus on the oral cavity and periodontal tissues.

According to its website, the goal of Oragenics is to create a vaccine aimed at creating an immune response in the mouth at a young age that prevents the bacteria from attaching to a tooth or accumulating on the surface of a tooth. Testing on rats has been successful, but in order to gain FDA approval wide-scale testing on children will be necessary. In the meantime, there are a whole of lot of lab rats running around which aren't suffering from tooth decay.

And last but not least, show me a mouth and I'll show you a whole lot of saliva. Just think of it: saliva as a tool for good. According to an article in Discover Magazine, scientists at UCLA are working to transform saliva into a clinically useful diagnostic fluid. What's that mean? Well, as a diagnostic fluid, saliva has plenty of benefits over blood. For example, getting a sample doesn't require a trained technician, and there are no hypodermic needles involved. In theory, scientists will be able to take a drop of your saliva and use it detect a variety of diseases and ailments including oral and breast cancer in addition to metabolic and neurological disorders.

In fact, the study of saliva is so serious, that the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (www.nidr.nih.gov) is funding seven teams of researchers to build salivary diagnostic devices. The projects bring together biologists, dentists, and bioengineers and span a range of technologies.

Within a few years, these seven groups of researchers hope to build fully automated, tabletop-size diagnostic machines that can be stationed in a clinic, a dentist's office, or even at home - making analysis quick and more importantly -- cheap.

There will always be a place for brushing and flossing, but with dental hygiene going high-tech; in the future your smile means that you won't just be another pretty face.