No More Need for Dental Fillings? New Peptide Regenerates Tooth in a Month

Perhaps it will not even take that long until dentists from all over the world can put away their drills for good. A recent study published in the ACS Nano journal, shows that there is a new peptide available that if introduced in a soft gel or a thin film and placed right next to a cavity, this will make the cells within the tooth to regenerate in less than 30 days.

Perhaps it will not even take that long until dentists from all over the world can put away their drills for good.

A recent study published in the ACS Nano journal, shows that there is a new peptide available that if introduced in a soft gel or a thin film and placed right next to a cavity, this will make the cells within the tooth to regenerate in less than 30 days.

The use of this new gel or thin film embedded with the peptide might actually eliminate the need to drill deep into the root of the tooth for the filling to be applied.

According to scientist Nadia Benkirane-Jessel from the Institute National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, this method cannot be compared to the use of the toothpaste which prevents cavities.

This innovative approach is rather a method through which scientists try to control and treat the cavity after this is already formed. If the method proves to be safe and practical, this will mean that people struggling with infected teeth and deep cavities will not have to put up with dental phobia anymore.

They will just go to the dentist, and he will apply a small amount of gel or such a film with peptides right onto the infected tooth, and the tooth will start to regenerate nicely.

The traditional method of treating cavities supposes that the dentist will drill deep into the infected tooth to remove puss and decay, and then filing in the cavity in order to stop further complications.

The peptide that will help the tooth to regenerate is called MSH (Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone). There have been made tests in the past, and the results showed that the peptide is helping the bone in the jaw to regenerate.

Since the consistence of the tooth and the bone are quite similar, scientists assumed that MSH can be a great help for decayed tooth regeneration as well.

Deep drilling into the tooth in order to remove decay can be quite destructive. The blood vessels and the nerves that reside within the tooth can be damaged, so using the MSH peptide to “heal” the tooth from the inside is a much milder approach.

However, until the new method is proved indeed efficient and until it will be used in the dental offices worldwide, there will be several years of testing and researches still needed.