Hate fillings? An Alzheimer’s drug could help your teeth naturally repair cavities

When you get a cavity, a dentist typically has to drill out the decayed portion of your tooth and then fill it with silver, gold or porcelain. It can cost around $200 per filling.

New research into an existing drug might change the inconvenient procedure, prompting your teeth to heal the hole naturally rather than requiring a filling made of a foreign substance.

When the inner, soft pulp of your tooth is exposed due to infection or other reasons, the tooth produces a thin layer of dentin, the hard, dense, bony tissue that forms the bulk of a tooth beneath the enamel. However, the thin layer is not sufficient for the tooth to repair large cavities on its own.

A team of researchers at King’s College London found that Tideglusib, which has previously been used in clinical trials to treat neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, could change that. Tideglusib blocks the enzyme that usually stops dentin growth, glycogen synthase kinase, allowing the tooth to continue to produce dentin capable of covering a gap left by a large cavity.

Because Tideglusib has already been used in clinical trials for other means, researchers said it could be on the “fast-track” for use in dentistry.

The researchers inserted a collagen sponge with the treatment over holes in mice molars, and found the mouse teeth regrew dentin in those areas, with the lesions almost completely repaired in six weeks.

“They found that the sponge degraded over time and that new dentin replaced it, leading to complete, natural repair,” the study’s authors wrote. “Collagen sponges are commercially-available and clinically-approved, again adding to the potential of the treatment’s swift pick-up and use in dental clinics.”

This story was originally published January 10, 2017 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Hate fillings? An Alzheimer’s drug could help your teeth naturally repair cavities."