The first experiments on growing enamel

Keep snow-white and beautiful teeth a dreameach person and medicine is looking for new ways of regeneration, implantation and restoration of teeth. One of the most important elements of the human tooth is the enamel that covers and protects the delicate bone. In terms of strength and hardness, tooth enamel is superior to any bone in the human body, but it is deprived of the possibility of regeneration.

Chinese researchers tried to solvethe problem of restoration of enamel and it was grown in laboratory conditions, reaching strength indicators corresponding to natural enamel. Scientists have proposed using a special gel that, when hardened, gains strength and hardness comparable to natural enamel.

The formation of tooth enamel occurs at the stagedevelopment of the fetus, later it loses its cellular structure and becomes unable to regenerate. Caries and other tooth diseases that damage enamel permanently destroy it.

The main problem in creating artificial enamel is attempts to synthesize clusters of calcium phosphates in the form of a tightly packed structure with sufficient density and strength.

Chinese researchers from Zhejiang University,led by Dr. Zhaoming Liu were able to recreate clusters of calcium phosphate with a diameter of only 1.5 nm, which almost corresponds to the small size of human tooth enamel. The technology of production and the composition of the gel remains a secret, however, scientists said that in the course of work, triethylamine was used, which slows down the adhesion of calcium phosphate particles, which in turn made it possible to tightly “pack” the enamel structural units.

The experiments were carried out on damaged andextracted teeth that were stored in an environment simulating a human oral cavity. The regeneration process took about 48 hours, but at the first stage it is possible to create an enamel of 3 microns thick, which is 400 times thinner than natural enamel. Further experiments to improve the characteristics of the gel are carried out on mice.