I feel like I've been reading this exact same article for the last 15 years.. I find it very difficulty to parse what is real and what is vaporware in the medical breakthroughs community.
Just 7% of studies that do a preliminary study on humans actually get through phase 3 and get approved for use. This is before even the preliminary point, its a tooth (or even a tooth analogue) in a petri dish. No idea if the material will be safe in a human mouth yet.
There is a lot of hyping of results in medicine papers in general but its not really their fault. The entire academic world is being forced to publish or die as governments look to measure results from the science they instead get what is measured and everyone has to embellish the importance of what they found and always find positive results.
> The entire academic world is being forced to publish or die as governments look to measure results from the science they instead get what is measured and everyone has to embellish the importance of what they found and always find positive results.
It sounds like they're running it like a business.
A lot of this is the direct result of trying to run a government like a business. If we instead left some things that are unprofitable but important to government then we'd probably get better results than having businesses do those things expecting a profit. This was the model in the 30's, 40's and 50's that led to the "golden age" that people are now trying to recapture.
> This eventually leads to competitors taking over and those business failing
If only that fairytale were true. In the real world bloated inefficient companies bribe government, install themselves into government agencies directly (regulatory capture), and hire lobbyists to write laws which protect them from pesky upstarts through unchecked anti-competitive practices and anti-consumer regulation allowing them to stay wealthy and in power forever while killing off innovation and progress.
Same feeling here. Dental seems particularly fraught (though maybe I just pay more attention to it out of interest). I know the cycle time between press releases/hype and actual application can be the better part of a decade, so I assume that's coloring my perception too.
re: dental in particular - It seems like enamel regeneration and stem-cell-based tooth replacement have both been in the news year-after-year without applications actually coming to market.
Everyone knows that teeth are luxury bones in the US. The market just isn't there for fancy treatments. The ultra-wealthy just get their teeth replaced with perfect veneers anyway.
While I 100% agree with what you wrote, I'd just add that it does seem in my own dental visits over my lifetime that there have been real advancements, too. But yes, I agree, hard for non-expert to parse.
A similar approach was reported in 2019,[1] but that produced thinner coatings, and the recovery of the architecture of inner layers of enamel was only partial.
I would say, maybe look at medical studies from the opposite end, epidemiological studies look at factors that reduce mortality/morbidity. Granted, it's less flashy, basically vaccines, alcohol/tobacco reduction, increase in active lifestyle, statins/ace inhibitors, monoclonals/oncology fanciness. although someone who actually is an MPH can probably correct me.
on the neuroscience side, off the top of my head, the most impactful things have been better anticoagulants and preventive care for stroke, monoclonal abs for autoimmune diseases like MS/myasthenia, , certain stereotactic brain surgeries, and such. But considering what ails most people, the overall population effect probably is minuscule compared to say better crash safety in automobiles.
Cancers have had extremely effective new treatments developed for in the last ten years.
Depending on the type of cancer, we now have cures or treatments that stave off death for years.
My wife has a rare type of cancer with not much research thrown at it, and even her type of cancer went from a median time of survival measured in months to several years.
Tooth regrowth is something I was really hoping for. I abused one of my molars. After years of efforts (repeated fillings, a crown) to stave off losing the tooth it finally had to come out last month. Now I'm waiting for the bone graft to "take" before getting an implant. I was hoping I'd waited long enough for tooth regrowth to become "a thing" but I have not.
(Should have taken better care of it when I was younger and not ignored the massive hole that was growing in it. Chalk it up to a bad dental experience as a child and 25+ years of avoiding dentists as a result...)
it might be slow exponential thing, 60 years of low to medium improvements in cancer, and hopefully suddenly a few big cracks to turn it into a chronic liveable condition (or maybe cure it).
there are more articles about advanced tumors being shrunk to nothing than before (based on my personal monitoring)
It is probably tough getting investment because this is ultimately cosmetic and not something covered by most dental insurance. Existing repair is probably good enough and I’d expect cheaper too.
As it turns out, this is really hard to do. There are a lot required of teeth: they have to be extremely durable to resist repeated strain of chewing ,stay in the gums, not be rejected by body, etc. It's little surprise progress has been so slow.
Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any harm from flossing. At least from my anecdotal experience there are positive bad breath ramifications. (I've also been conditioned, by flossing regularly, to feel like my mouth is "cleaner" after flossing, to the point that it feels bad if I don't.)
I hear so many counter-logical ideas proposed with "scientific evidence". Poorly designed studies and P-Hacking has ruined the publics trust in science. I highly doubt flossing is a net negative for almost anyone.
This is the key issue. There is zero doubt whatsoever that flossing is essential, and the fact that the empirical evidence is equivocal shows the limitations of science to prove even the most obvious things.
I do floss, but I genuinely don't see that this is obvious. You can do a lot of damage with mechanical force, to both teeth and gums! Starting a flossing regimen after not having one tends to cause pain--isn't that a signal to stop? etc.
Furthermore, correlation is not causation and it could well be the case that flossing is associated with better outcomes without causing it. For example, people who can afford to go to the dentist regularly are therefore regularly told to floss. People who care about dental health in general probably floss more, but also may be doing other things, consciously or unconsciously, to improve outcomes. Gut (and perhaps mouth) bacteria have behavioral effects; perhaps flossing is caused by having healthy mouth bacteria!
(at least one study says mouthwash is better than floss. That seems obvious to me! liquids are smaller than floss.)
Any chance you would be willing to summarize the research or provide information on some relevant studies? I've always been skeptical about flossing and would like to learn more.
The wikipedia article [1] suggests that there is no strong evidence for flossing being a good thing. However, that might just be because experts have not updated the article.
hydroxyapatite is a mineral like your tooth, that's how it supports remineralization.
It's actually great stuff and works wonders for tooth sensitivity above and beyond fluoride shellac. I also order it from the more civilized world.
BioMin is available in the US and is similar, but I don't find it works better and I don't like that it doesn't have fluoride. (I live in an area without fluoride in the water)
I used BioMin F for about a year, and I think it did something, but I'm not sure I'm qualified to evaluate its effectiveness.
Unfortunately it isn't actually available where I live (US), and I had to buy it from Canada... from a shop that hasn't had stock for more than a year now. I've tried ordering from other countries, but haven't found anyone else who will ship to the US.
I've tried the "BioMin Restore" toothpaste that is available in the US, and I don't feel like it's doing much of anything, but... again, not sure I'm qualified to evaluate.
Interesting. A very rudimentary web search begins suggesting that Biomin is the more suspicious of the two. It has a very weird Internet footprint of being this somewhat obscure-looking expensive "Health" product. I really can't find any recognizable sources on the product name. Maybe the obscurity is part of the exotic allure for some?
You can buy the supplies and make nano silver flouride now, relatively cheaply compared to dental work. If you have a non corporate dentist, you could even ask them to apply it. The basic mechanism has been used on teeth forever, and adding the nano particles prevents the chemical from permanently staining your teeth black or blue (which is why it hasnt ever been more popular to begin with.)
This is horrible advice. Do everything you can to keep your original teeth, even partially with a crown is better than a post or dentures. Nothing will perform as good, and the side effects of dentures range from pain to liquid diet if/when your gums can't support them.
Wouldn't you rather reapply a coating that allows the base to regrow, than have to constant get them ground out and replaced as they accumulated small damage? Growth sounds way better than static existence.
An artificial crown may be better, but not the roots. Natural teeth are fixed in the jaw in a very ingenious way that is durable and somewhat flexible at the same time. Not so with implants; the metal fuses with the bone in a hard way and transmits all the shocks fully into the jaw.
If anyone's a dentist or is close to one, I'd love to know something I haven't found a satisfactory answer for online: if the vast majority of cavities were "magically" cured over the next few years, what impact would that have on the finances of your practice?
I'm not suggesting there's a conscious conspiracy or anything malicious. But I observe that incentives are weirdly aligned. I wonder what this kind of thing would do to a very large industry if all of a sudden some percentage of business disappeared. Is it a large percentage? Would they pivot to more preventative medicine? Would patients adopt a longer duration between checkups?
I think there would just be fewer dentists. It's like asking what would happen to the finances of weight loss clinics if magically Americans weren't as obese.
Poorly designed studies, materials proposed without insight into ramifications and manufacturing, and P-Hacking has ruined the publics trust in science. I blatantly just ignore any headline like this now. Can't trust science anymore.... sad. How many new "cancer cures" have been posted to Reddit and HN over the last decade that never came to fruition.
Not to say doing the science and studying to find new approaches is not beneficial. I just think we need to reconsider how we communicate new research. Its like how CEOs hype up AI products at this point. "This will change everything ..... potentially maybe in twenty years (omitted)"
I feel like I've been reading this exact same article for the last 15 years.. I find it very difficulty to parse what is real and what is vaporware in the medical breakthroughs community.
Just 7% of studies that do a preliminary study on humans actually get through phase 3 and get approved for use. This is before even the preliminary point, its a tooth (or even a tooth analogue) in a petri dish. No idea if the material will be safe in a human mouth yet.
There is a lot of hyping of results in medicine papers in general but its not really their fault. The entire academic world is being forced to publish or die as governments look to measure results from the science they instead get what is measured and everyone has to embellish the importance of what they found and always find positive results.
> The entire academic world is being forced to publish or die as governments look to measure results from the science they instead get what is measured and everyone has to embellish the importance of what they found and always find positive results.
It sounds like they're running it like a business.
Over time, any large business trends to increase in bloat and inefficiency, and focusing on inappropriate metrics is a big part of that.
This eventually leads to competitors taking over and those business failing, which usually results in people losing their jobs.
When governments get equally incapable, and competitors take over, it tends to be a lot more violent.
A lot of this is the direct result of trying to run a government like a business. If we instead left some things that are unprofitable but important to government then we'd probably get better results than having businesses do those things expecting a profit. This was the model in the 30's, 40's and 50's that led to the "golden age" that people are now trying to recapture.
> This eventually leads to competitors taking over and those business failing
If only that fairytale were true. In the real world bloated inefficient companies bribe government, install themselves into government agencies directly (regulatory capture), and hire lobbyists to write laws which protect them from pesky upstarts through unchecked anti-competitive practices and anti-consumer regulation allowing them to stay wealthy and in power forever while killing off innovation and progress.
> This eventually leads to competitors taking over and those business failing
It's important to note that "eventually" usually takes so long that it might as well be forever.
Enamelon Toothpaste from the 1990s:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/127083185095
"proven to strengthen tooth enamel" I remember researching the stock and deciding not to buy.
Patents from the 1990s https://patents.justia.com/assignee/enamelon-inc
It seems the company is still around https://www.enamelon.com
Did you tried :D ?
Same feeling here. Dental seems particularly fraught (though maybe I just pay more attention to it out of interest). I know the cycle time between press releases/hype and actual application can be the better part of a decade, so I assume that's coloring my perception too.
re: dental in particular - It seems like enamel regeneration and stem-cell-based tooth replacement have both been in the news year-after-year without applications actually coming to market.
Everyone knows that teeth are luxury bones in the US. The market just isn't there for fancy treatments. The ultra-wealthy just get their teeth replaced with perfect veneers anyway.
This might be the dental equivalent of the "Groundbreaking New Battery Tech" type of article.
While I 100% agree with what you wrote, I'd just add that it does seem in my own dental visits over my lifetime that there have been real advancements, too. But yes, I agree, hard for non-expert to parse.
A similar approach was reported in 2019,[1] but that produced thinner coatings, and the recovery of the architecture of inner layers of enamel was only partial.
[1]https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aaw9569
exact same reaction. I remember hearing about "regrowing teeth through sound waves"... in 2006. https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/dentist-engineer-team-up-to-... Can't say I have heard it offered anywhere yet....
I would say, maybe look at medical studies from the opposite end, epidemiological studies look at factors that reduce mortality/morbidity. Granted, it's less flashy, basically vaccines, alcohol/tobacco reduction, increase in active lifestyle, statins/ace inhibitors, monoclonals/oncology fanciness. although someone who actually is an MPH can probably correct me.
on the neuroscience side, off the top of my head, the most impactful things have been better anticoagulants and preventive care for stroke, monoclonal abs for autoimmune diseases like MS/myasthenia, , certain stereotactic brain surgeries, and such. But considering what ails most people, the overall population effect probably is minuscule compared to say better crash safety in automobiles.
- HIV/AIDs
- Cancer
- Tooth regrowth
It feels like it won’t ever be done for some reason
Cancers have had extremely effective new treatments developed for in the last ten years.
Depending on the type of cancer, we now have cures or treatments that stave off death for years.
My wife has a rare type of cancer with not much research thrown at it, and even her type of cancer went from a median time of survival measured in months to several years.
Tooth regrowth is something I was really hoping for. I abused one of my molars. After years of efforts (repeated fillings, a crown) to stave off losing the tooth it finally had to come out last month. Now I'm waiting for the bone graft to "take" before getting an implant. I was hoping I'd waited long enough for tooth regrowth to become "a thing" but I have not.
(Should have taken better care of it when I was younger and not ignored the massive hole that was growing in it. Chalk it up to a bad dental experience as a child and 25+ years of avoiding dentists as a result...)
i thought the first two have had huge improvements in the last decade?
HIV has become a manageable disease in my lifetime. The main issue today is access to medication as I understand it.
The first widespread cure for HIV could be in children - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44765981 - August 2025
One-and-done HIV protection in infants - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44736988 - July 2025
US FDA approves Gilead's twice-yearly injection for HIV prevention - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44312729 - June 2025
it might be slow exponential thing, 60 years of low to medium improvements in cancer, and hopefully suddenly a few big cracks to turn it into a chronic liveable condition (or maybe cure it).
there are more articles about advanced tumors being shrunk to nothing than before (based on my personal monitoring)
HIV prevention has been reduced to a twice a year shot given mainly to MSM. It's pretty damn close to the original goal of a vaccine.
+ Male birth control
+ Alzheimer’s cure
+ Hair regrowth
+ weight loss pills
...they were persistent vaporware or scams, then suddenly they were real and everywhere. Hopefully that happens for the others too?
> + weight loss pills
They've had those for decades. It's called meth.
Have we solved anything? /s
Cancer immunotherapy . Only works in a handful of cases
While a cure remains elusive, HIV treatment is now extremely effective. Antiretroviral shots can keep people symptom free indefinitely.
Cancer treatment varies by type of cancer but many have dramatically improved outcomes.
HIV/Aids have made huge progress and so did cancer. Also "cancer" isn't a single disease, they're quite different.
- hair regrowth
or, solid state batteries, graphene, fusion, quantum computers, agi =)
It is probably tough getting investment because this is ultimately cosmetic and not something covered by most dental insurance. Existing repair is probably good enough and I’d expect cheaper too.
yup here is one from 2007
https://www.technologyreview.com/2007/02/22/272845/regrowing...
As it turns out, this is really hard to do. There are a lot required of teeth: they have to be extremely durable to resist repeated strain of chewing ,stay in the gums, not be rejected by body, etc. It's little surprise progress has been so slow.
Wait until you read that the scientific evidence for flossing doesn't really confirm the promised benefits.
Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any harm from flossing. At least from my anecdotal experience there are positive bad breath ramifications. (I've also been conditioned, by flossing regularly, to feel like my mouth is "cleaner" after flossing, to the point that it feels bad if I don't.)
I hear so many counter-logical ideas proposed with "scientific evidence". Poorly designed studies and P-Hacking has ruined the publics trust in science. I highly doubt flossing is a net negative for almost anyone.
This is the key issue. There is zero doubt whatsoever that flossing is essential, and the fact that the empirical evidence is equivocal shows the limitations of science to prove even the most obvious things.
I do floss, but I genuinely don't see that this is obvious. You can do a lot of damage with mechanical force, to both teeth and gums! Starting a flossing regimen after not having one tends to cause pain--isn't that a signal to stop? etc.
Furthermore, correlation is not causation and it could well be the case that flossing is associated with better outcomes without causing it. For example, people who can afford to go to the dentist regularly are therefore regularly told to floss. People who care about dental health in general probably floss more, but also may be doing other things, consciously or unconsciously, to improve outcomes. Gut (and perhaps mouth) bacteria have behavioral effects; perhaps flossing is caused by having healthy mouth bacteria!
(at least one study says mouthwash is better than floss. That seems obvious to me! liquids are smaller than floss.)
Any chance you would be willing to summarize the research or provide information on some relevant studies? I've always been skeptical about flossing and would like to learn more.
The wikipedia article [1] suggests that there is no strong evidence for flossing being a good thing. However, that might just be because experts have not updated the article.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_floss#Efficacy
enjoy https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD...
tbf, it does require a technique otherwise you risk just pushing plaque underneath your gums
Where? Source please?
Wait what? Please share
Well until this stuff comes out I'll keep using smuggled FDA-unapproved Novamin toothpaste. Atonement for my neglect
How does NovaMin / calcium sodium phosphosilicate compare to toothpaste with nanohydroxyapatite in it?
Sensodyne?
I just learned about this 5 mins ago and did some basic research. Here's what I found:
- Sensodyne Repair and Protect contains 'NovaMin' (possibly only in some markets; check the ingredients!)
- NovaMin is the brand name for calcium sodium phosphosilicate
- It reacts with saliva to form a physical layer of hydroxyapatite on your teeth
- This layer blocks the tubules that trigger pain from temperature and such
- It also supports remineralization (how exactly?)
Due to GSKs patents only repair and protect outside of the US has novamin in it.
hydroxyapatite is a mineral like your tooth, that's how it supports remineralization.
It's actually great stuff and works wonders for tooth sensitivity above and beyond fluoride shellac. I also order it from the more civilized world.
BioMin is available in the US and is similar, but I don't find it works better and I don't like that it doesn't have fluoride. (I live in an area without fluoride in the water)
You have to get the European version of Sensodyne Repair and Protect to get NovaMin. It's not in the US formulation.
The German version also seems to have stannous fluoride instead of NovaMin, like in the US.
as the sibling comment notes, the Canadian version also has it:
https://www.jeancoutu.com/en/shop/categories/personal-care/o...
https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Sensodyne-Repair-Protect-Sensit...
The Canadian version I just bought also seems to have 5% NovaMin.
Because it keeps coming up there is an anti-Novamin crowd that says it’s useless and Biomin is the true re-enamelizer.
I used BioMin F for about a year, and I think it did something, but I'm not sure I'm qualified to evaluate its effectiveness.
Unfortunately it isn't actually available where I live (US), and I had to buy it from Canada... from a shop that hasn't had stock for more than a year now. I've tried ordering from other countries, but haven't found anyone else who will ship to the US.
I've tried the "BioMin Restore" toothpaste that is available in the US, and I don't feel like it's doing much of anything, but... again, not sure I'm qualified to evaluate.
Interesting. A very rudimentary web search begins suggesting that Biomin is the more suspicious of the two. It has a very weird Internet footprint of being this somewhat obscure-looking expensive "Health" product. I really can't find any recognizable sources on the product name. Maybe the obscurity is part of the exotic allure for some?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7068624
Is this a commercial product that has been approved by a regulator to make these claims? Amazing. Newsworthy.
Is this a press release from a university research group, as it appears to be (the site is down)? Then it's nearly meaningless.
You can buy the supplies and make nano silver flouride now, relatively cheaply compared to dental work. If you have a non corporate dentist, you could even ask them to apply it. The basic mechanism has been used on teeth forever, and adding the nano particles prevents the chemical from permanently staining your teeth black or blue (which is why it hasnt ever been more popular to begin with.)
https://fourthievesvinegar.org/tooth-seal/
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2502731-cavities-could-...
EDIT: https://archive.is/MYBSe
Site is down, not in archive.org or archive.today. This Yandex Cache link worked for me: https://yandexwebcache.net/yandbtm?fmode=inject&tm=176237557...
There is the potential of ability of people to regrow teeth
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a66012157/hu... regrowth-trials-japan/
This would highly disrupt the dental-industrial-complex
Screw enamel; man-made materials are better.
If you ever get into any serious money, forget cars or houses: have your teeth ripped out and replaced with artificial ones.
This is horrible advice. Do everything you can to keep your original teeth, even partially with a crown is better than a post or dentures. Nothing will perform as good, and the side effects of dentures range from pain to liquid diet if/when your gums can't support them.
Wouldn't you rather reapply a coating that allows the base to regrow, than have to constant get them ground out and replaced as they accumulated small damage? Growth sounds way better than static existence.
An artificial crown may be better, but not the roots. Natural teeth are fixed in the jaw in a very ingenious way that is durable and somewhat flexible at the same time. Not so with implants; the metal fuses with the bone in a hard way and transmits all the shocks fully into the jaw.
What are the disadvantages of having all the shocks go fully into the jaw?
Discomfort and pain, I would assume.
I wouldn't be surprised if this can, over time, also cause damage to your jaw, and put extra stress on your jaw muscles.
Pretty sure I get re-targeted by ads for various versions of this for weeks on end after I do a single google search for a new toothpaste.
Usually the safety profiles of those companies are very very very bad, but probably reference very good research.
If anyone's a dentist or is close to one, I'd love to know something I haven't found a satisfactory answer for online: if the vast majority of cavities were "magically" cured over the next few years, what impact would that have on the finances of your practice?
I'm not suggesting there's a conscious conspiracy or anything malicious. But I observe that incentives are weirdly aligned. I wonder what this kind of thing would do to a very large industry if all of a sudden some percentage of business disappeared. Is it a large percentage? Would they pivot to more preventative medicine? Would patients adopt a longer duration between checkups?
I will say my dentists always try to convince me to floss more often, regardless of any economic benefit they might have for me to disregard my teeth.
I also would imagine cleanings aren't where the big money is in the profession, but like you would be interested to hear from actual dentists.
I think there would just be fewer dentists. It's like asking what would happen to the finances of weight loss clinics if magically Americans weren't as obese.
Poorly designed studies, materials proposed without insight into ramifications and manufacturing, and P-Hacking has ruined the publics trust in science. I blatantly just ignore any headline like this now. Can't trust science anymore.... sad. How many new "cancer cures" have been posted to Reddit and HN over the last decade that never came to fruition.
Not to say doing the science and studying to find new approaches is not beneficial. I just think we need to reconsider how we communicate new research. Its like how CEOs hype up AI products at this point. "This will change everything ..... potentially maybe in twenty years (omitted)"
Is it Fuji 9?
You know it's weird how we don't have a general "healing" gel yet..