Toothpaste fills cavities without drilling
{{date|February 24, 2005}}

A paste containing synthetic tooth enamel can seal small cavities without drilling. [http://homepage2.nifty.com/nmc/home.html Kazue Yamagishi] and colleagues at the FAP Dental Institute in Tokyo say that the paste can repair small cavities in 15 minutes.

Currently, fillers don't stick to such small [[w:cavities|cavities]] so dentists must drill bigger holes. [[w:hydroxyapatite|Hydroxyapatite]] crystals, of which natural enamel is made, bond with teeth to repair tiny areas of damage. 

Yamagishi and colleagues have tested their paste on a lower premolar tooth that showed early signs of decay. They found that the synthetic enamel merged with the natural enamel. The synthetic enamel also appears to make teeth stronger which will improve resistance to future decay. As with drilling, however, there is still the potential for pain: The paste is strongly acidic to encourage crystal growth and causes inflammation if it touches the gums. 

The paste is reported in the journal ''[[w:nature (journal)|Nature]]''.

==Sources==

*{{source|title=Synthetic enamel offers painless fillings|author=|url= http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7058|pub=New Scientist|date=February 23, 2005}}
*{{source|title=Paste could silence dental drill|author=|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4291445.stm|pub=BBC News|date=February 24, 2005}}
*{{source|title=A synthetic enamel for rapid tooth repair |author=Kazue Yamagishi, Kazuo Onuma, Takashi Suzuki, Fumio Okada, Junji Tagami, Masayuki Otsuki and Pisol Senawangse|url=http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v433/n7028/abs/433819a_fs.html|pub=Nature|date=February 24, 2005}}

  
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[[Category:Health]]
[[Category:Japan]]
[[Category:published]]
A paste containing synthetic tooth enamel can seal small cavities without drilling.  Kazue Yamagishi and colleagues at the FAP Dental Institute in Tokyo say that the paste can repair small cavities in 15 minutes.

Currently, fillers don't stick to such small cavities so dentists must drill bigger holes. Hydroxyapatite crystals, of which natural enamel is made, bond with teeth to repair tiny areas of damage. 

Yamagishi and colleagues have tested their paste on a lower premolar tooth that showed early signs of decay. They found that the synthetic enamel merged with the natural enamel. The synthetic enamel also appears to make teeth stronger which will improve resistance to future decay. As with drilling, however, there is still the potential for pain: The paste is strongly acidic to encourage crystal growth and causes inflammation if it touches the gums. 

The paste is reported in the journal Nature.
Health Japan published