A few years ago they were talking about a vaccine against tooth decay. Has
anyone heard anything new about that?

Robert wrote:
A few years ago they were talking about a vaccine against tooth decay.
Has
anyone heard anything new about that?

Not lately. The first time I heard of a caries vaccine, the work was
being done in England. That would have been about 1972. What I heard
about that effort was that there were some unacceptable side-effects--IIRC
cross-sensitization to myocardium.
I've heard of more recent efforts, but nothing about human trials.

It would really be great. As you know it is a real problem for people with a

"Steven Bornfeld" wrote in message
news:u9SdnSq9Fru3EGjanZ2dnUVZ_oHinZ2d@earthlink.com...
Robert wrote:
A few years ago they were talking about a vaccine against tooth decay.
Has
anyone heard anything new about that?

Not lately. The first time I heard of a caries vaccine, the work was
being done in England. That would have been about 1972. What I heard
about that effort was that there were some unacceptable side-effects--IIRC
cross-sensitization to myocardium.
I've heard of more recent efforts, but nothing about human trials.

It would really be great. As you know it is a real problem for people with a
genetic disposition to dry mouth. Even regular brushing and dental care
can't stave off the decay.

Robert wrote:
"Steven Bornfeld" wrote in message
news:u9SdnSq9Fru3EGjanZ2dnUVZ_oHinZ2d@earthlink.com...
Robert wrote:
A few years ago they were talking about a vaccine against tooth decay.
Has
anyone heard anything new about that?

Not lately. The first time I heard of a caries vaccine, the work was
being done in England. That would have been about 1972. What I heard
about that effort was that there were some unacceptable
side-effects--IIRC
cross-sensitization to myocardium.
I've heard of more recent efforts, but nothing about human trials.

It would really be great. As you know it is a real problem for people
with a
genetic disposition to dry mouth. Even regular brushing and dental care
can't stave off the decay.


I hadn't heard of genetic disposition to dry mouth, though the common
conditions (eg. Sjogrens' syndrome) may have a hereditary disposition.
Many medications also cause dry mouth.
However, the majority of patients with extensive caries do not have
obviously dry mouths. Sometimes the causes are obvious (diet, oral
hygiene, level of dental care), sometimes they are not.
It's generally harder to find an effective vaccine against a condition
like caries that is multifactorial, as opposed to one with a specific
etiologic agent. The bug most implicated in caries is S. mutans, but it
isn't the only one. You want to get the bulk of those, without unduly
changing the other microbiota of the mouth and GI system. That may well
be the hangup.

What is generally recommended to people prone to caries, assuming good oral

What is generally recommended to people prone to caries, assuming good oral
hygiene, decent diet, no smoking, etc? Thanks for the reply.

1)BETTER diet
2)BETTER oral hygiene
3) Regular checkups, to catch the small cavities before they become root
canals or extractions.
4) If dry mouth is a problem, use of products specifically to relieve
symptoms--eg. Biotene, Oasis.
5) Therapeutic fluorides as needed--high-fluoride gels such as Prevident,
Gel-kam, use of fluoride varnishes--Duraphat.
6) For root decay, sometimes a cariostatic material containing glass
ionomer is used.

2) Well I currently brush and floss at least two and usually three times a
day, and get cleanings at least two or three times a year, so I don't know
how much better oral hygiene I can get.

3) I'll try the Biotene or Oasis, thanks.

6) Is this cariostatic material containing glass ionomer something that I
apply or a dentist applies? I googled it and it appears to be a category
rather than a specific treatment.

Thanks again.

1)BETTER diet
2)BETTER oral hygiene
3) Regular checkups, to catch the small cavities before they become root
canals or extractions.
4) If dry mouth is a problem, use of products specifically to relieve
symptoms--eg. Biotene, Oasis.
5) Therapeutic fluorides as needed--high-fluoride gels such as
Prevident, Gel-kam, use of fluoride varnishes--Duraphat.
6) For root decay, sometimes a cariostatic material containing glass
ionomer is used.

Steve

MI Paste for re-mineralization

http://www.gcamerica.com/mipaste.html

Thanks. Can you point to any independent studies that this kind of material

A few years ago they were talking about a vaccine against tooth decay. Has
anyone heard anything new about that?

Robert wrote:
A few years ago they were talking about a vaccine against tooth decay.
Has
anyone heard anything new about that?

Here is a philosophical way of looking at the question.

There are something like 400 kinds of germs living in people's mouths.
and they live off food waste and dead tissues such as skin cells shed
from the inside of the mouth, and some of them cause decay. If you were
able to kill off every one of those bacteria, there would still be that
food/energy supply for germs in the mouth. Some other germs that don't
normally live in a human mouth would show up to make a living in your
mouth, and those strange germs would likely be more harmful than the
ones you had killed. The germs we have in our mouths are less harmful
than they could be---it doesn't pay them to injure or kill off their
hosts too easily. The relationship between the host and some of the
germs is commensal or mutualistic.

Better to think of managing mouth germs similar to the way you manage
your lawn. Something is going to grow there---it might as well be
tolerable germs (pretty green grass) rather than some unknown germ that
might do considerable harm (weeds). That leads to the idea of using
probiotics to seed your mouth with the least harmful---maybe even
beneficial---germs, in the way that people drink acidophilus milk to put
good germs in the gut. It also leads to the idea that people are
putting themselves at risk of infection when they kill off the healthy
mouth flora when they bleach their teeth.

400 kinds of germs

but here that proposal is a bit of a straw man.

Sorry,
Steve

On Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:19:12 -0400, Steven Bornfeld
dentaltwinmung@earthlink.net> wrote:

but here that proposal is a bit of a straw man.

Sorry,
Steve


Always liked the Tin Man better anyway.

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