Oral Health News
by Robert M. Anderton, D.D.S., J.D., LL.M
The screening also helps determine whether more comprehensive tests, such as a surgical biopsy, or other follow-ups are needed.
On the research front, scientists are now looking at a newly identified gene that appears to play a key role in the development of oral cancer. Other oral cancer diagnostic tools, such as the use of special types of mouth rinses, are also being studied.
Good News for Kids
With regard to everyday dental concerns, a vaccine that inoculates against tooth decay is being developed. Tooth decay is the single most common childhood disease, five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever. But the discovery of a potentially important antigen, or antibody, stimulant for use in a vaccine against tooth decay may help change those statistics forever.
Sprayed in the nose, rather than being injected or swallowed like other vaccines, it works by stimulating immunity to the enzyme responsible for the accumulation of the decay-causing microorganisms on teeth. Researchers at Boston's Forsyth Institute, who discovered the antigen, have received approval to begin clinical trials.
No More Root Canals?
Dental researchers are also looking at an "intelligent" dental composite material that may help make many root canal procedures unnecessary,
The material signals tissue cells to self-repair. Placed over pulp tissue (the soft inner part of a tooth) that has become damaged by exposure, the "intelligent" composite material stimulates repair of the damaged tissue. In tests on animals, it produced much better results than materials currently in use.
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