Dental Lozenge: A Permanent Solution for Your Sensitive Teeth?

A peptide-based dental lozenge could regenerate the enamel and help fight tooth sensitivity.

Highlights:

Dental hypersensitivity often occurs when you have hot or cold food and so far, no permanent solution has been offered
Researchers have developed a peptide, known as sADP5 which could potentially help regenerate the enamel
In preclinical trials, people were given lozenges laced with the peptide and found it effective, although the peptide can be used in formulations like toothpaste, mouth, and gels as well

Have you experienced tooth sensitivity while consuming hot or cold foods? You’re not alone, dental sensitivity affects about 42% of all adults (). The treatments provided usually just address the symptom and not the cause. There might finally be a solution to your sensitivity woes: a dental lozenge.

Sami Dogan has worked in dentistry for more than 30 years and has seen just about every type of oral problem. It is simple to fill cavities. Dental implants are now common. Yet, he added, there is one issue that annoys even the most skilled dentists: hypersensitivity, a painful sensation brought on by contact with hot, cold, or acidic food.

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‘A newly developed lozenge laced with a peptide known as sADP5 could fight your tooth sensitivity woes. #sensitivity #OralHealth’

Finding a Permanent Cure for Tooth Hypersensitivity

“We see patients with hypersensitive teeth, but we can’t really help them,” said Dogan, a Professor of Restorative Dentistry at the University of Washington. “We have all these repair options available in the market, but they’re all transient. They focus on treating the symptoms and not addressing the root cause. I see my patients after a couple of weeks, several months, again coming to my practice complaining about the same issue.”

So, a few years ago, Dogan started collaborating with a group of UW materials engineers who had set out to create a natural protocol to repair lost tooth minerals and who also thought it would become a long-term solution to this excruciating ailment.

Their approach, which was published in the ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, develops new mineral microlayers that penetrate deeply into the tooth to produce efficient, long-lasting natural defense ().

The ultimate objective, according to Dogan, is to make tooth sensitivity relief easily accessible for the many millions of adults who experience it globally.

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Tooth Hypersensitivity: Why Does it Happen?

The unpleasant sensation occurs when acids, such as those produced when saliva breaks down sugar, erode tooth enamel. If left unchecked, such wear, known as demineralization, can expose the channels that connect the tooth's hard exterior to its softer inner, dentin, and pulp. Nerves and blood arteries are rendered unprotected, resulting in agony.

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sADP5: A Peptide That can Help Regenerate the Enamel

The human body has no mechanism for repairing or regrowing damaged enamel, which is the only non-living tissue in the body. To counteract that loss, the UW researchers created a solution that is molecularly biomimetic, which means it closely mirrors the molecular processes that the body uses to grow teeth.

A peptide — a short chain of amino acids produced from the bigger protein amelogenin — is important to the biological development of human teeth. The peptide, known as sADP5, binds to calcium and phosphate ions, which are the main components of tooth minerals, and uses them to form new mineral microlayers.

“Our technology forms the same minerals found in the tooth, including enamel, cementum, and dentin alike, which had dissolved previously through demineralization and caused the sensitivity,” said lead author Deniz T. Yücesoy, who began this work as a postdoctoral researcher at UW and is now an assistant professor at the Izmir Institute of Technology in Türkiye. “The newly formed mineral microlayers close the communication channels with the tooth nerves, and then hypersensitivity shouldn’t be an issue for you.”

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sADP5-Peptide Based Lozenge Could Treat Tooth Sensitivity

The peptide can be incorporated into almost any oral health product. Participants in preclinical trials received a cough drop-sized dental lozenge with a core of calcium and phosphate wrapped in a layer of peptide-infused flavoring. Peptide-based products such as mouthwash, dental gels, tooth whiteners, and toothpaste have also been developed by researchers.

“There are lots of different design and delivery methods,” said Hanson Fong, an assistant teaching professor of materials science and engineering at the UW and co-author of the paper. “The most important thing is the peptide, the key ingredient in the given formulation, and it’s working.”

References:

Prevalence of dentine hypersensitivity and study of associated factors: A European population-based cross-sectional study - (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0300571213001905)
Biomimetic Dentin Repair: Amelogenin-Derived Peptide Guides Occlusion and Peritubular Mineralization of Human Teeth - (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.2c01039)

Source-Medindia