It's not great when you break your tooth, and I can say that from personal experience.
Whether it's an accident or you've lost your chomper thanks to cavities, you have to get a filling, or worse have it painfully reconstructed. But luckily, there may be a better solution now.
Researchers at China's Zhejiang University have developed a way to have tooth enamel repair itself, and all it takes is applying a special gel to it. Basically, apply this gel onto your damaged teeth and you could seriously cut down on the number of dentist visits you have to make.
Enamel is the hard, protective layer encasing your teeth. These aren't infallible however; they can be worn down over time by your teeth grinding together, or corroded by food and sweets stuck between your teeth. When that happens, the lead to cavities, tiny holes in your teeth that need to be filled to prevent them from decaying further.
The problem is, these filings were made from metal back in the day, and more commonly porcelain or resin today. Of course, those materials don't bind to the surface of the tooth, so sometimes they can pop off after many years.
In order to fix this, Ruikang Tang and his colleagues began working on an alternative material they could use as a fix. Their solution was a calcium and phosphate gel that can be applied to the teeth. This encourages them to self-repair, using the gel, which has the same arrangement of calcium and phosphate crystals as regular enamel.
Based on their observations, this new enamel formed from the gel is only 3 micrometres thick, about 400 times thinner than undamaged enamel. However Tang says the gel can be repeatedly applied to build up more layers.
Zhejiang University
After first testing it on teeth removed from late donors, the team is now testing it on mice, with the hopes of eventually testing on people. They have to ensure it's both effective in real-life mouth conditions, as well as safe for people to eat and drink with when using it.
But if everything goes well, it might do wonders for people terrified of dentist drills.