A synthetic enamel for rapid tooth repair

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Materials chemistry

Nature volume 433, page 819 (2005)Cite this article

Seamless fixing of an early caries lesion can be achieved without prior excavation.

Abstract

The conventional treatment of dental caries involves mechanical removal of the affected part and filling of the hole with a resin or metal alloy1,2,3,4. But this method is not ideal for tiny early lesions5,6 because a disproportionate amount of healthy tooth must be removed to make the alloy or resin stick. Here we describe a dental paste of synthetic enamel that rapidly and seamlessly repairs early caries lesions by nanocrystalline growth, with minimal wastage of the natural enamel.

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Figure 1: Repair of an early caries lesion using a synthetic enamel paste.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. FAP Dental Institute, 3-2-1, Kakinokizaka, 502 Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-0022, Japan

    Kazue Yamagishi

  2. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Institute for Human Science and Biomedical Engineering, Central 6, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8566, Japan

    Kazuo Onuma

  3. Department of Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology, Faculty of Engineering, Yamanashi University, 43-11, Takeda, Kofu, Yamanashi, 400-8511, Japan

    Takashi Suzuki & Fumio Okada

  4. Department of Restorative Science, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 5-45, Yushima 1-chome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8549, Japan

    Takashi Suzuki, Junji Tagami, Masayuki Otsuki & Pisol Senawangse

Authors

  1. Kazue Yamagishi
  2. Kazuo Onuma
  3. Takashi Suzuki
  4. Fumio Okada
  5. Junji Tagami
  6. Masayuki Otsuki
  7. Pisol Senawangse

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kazue Yamagishi.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Figure 1

The file is composed of two figure panels (a-b) that show an example of a tooth (extracted upper premolar) before (a) and after (b) repair using our paste. (JPG 41 kb)

Supplementary Figure 2a-f

The three files contain eight panels (a-h) showing laser confocal microscopy images of the dissolution process of a paste-repaired surface (a-c) and dental enamel (d-f) in acidic simulated saliva, plus dissolution rate measurements (g), and an SEM photograph of a paste-repaired tooth after a 10,000 times brushing test. (JPG 230 kb)

Supplementary Figure 2g (JPG 73 kb)

Supplementary Figure 2h (JPG 147 kb)

Supplementary figure captions (DOC 24 kb)

Supplementary Methods

The document describes the preparation of our paste and repair protocol for using the paste. The document also describes the chemical composition of APF solution and the conditions for the durability and acid tolerance tests as well as the chemical composition of simulated saliva. (DOC 21 kb)

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Yamagishi, K., Onuma, K., Suzuki, T. et al. A synthetic enamel for rapid tooth repair. Nature 433, 819 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/433819a

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Editorial Summary

Goodbye to the dentist's drill?

Tooth decay is normally treated by mechanical removal of the affected part, then filling the hole with a resin or metal alloy. This is less than ideal for tiny early caries lesions as so much healthy tooth must be removed to make fillings stick. A newly developed dental paste of synthetic tooth enamel could avoid that problem. The crystalline white paste is made of modified hydroxyapatite, chemically and structurally similar to natural enamel, and it rapidly and seamlessly repairs an early caries lesion by nanocrystalline growth. This new dental paste can be used to reconstruct enamel without the need for drilling; as an added bonus the process not only repairs the caries lesions but also helps prevent them by strengthening the natural enamel.