In our times of amazing technologies and breathtaking innovations in medicine, scientists are coming up with interesting ideas and concepts very often. One of the newest innovative technologies created by a team of experts at Princeton University has a lot to do with our teeth, and this idea is really something that can make a great breakthrough in the whole medical science. Princeton scientists have developed a tiny ‘tooth-tatoo’, an ultra paper-thin sensor which can be installed in our teeth surface. The main function of this tiny sensor is attempting to diagnose our health conditions and diseases from our breath, to be proper, from the bacteria in our breath.

The proposed ‘tooth-tatoo’ is a miraculous one-atom-thick carbon plate located on a special plate made from graphene, which can be installed (tatooed) on our teeth surface. This tiny sheet on carbon can detect bacteria and send the information about the infections to specially designed device. The most important health benefits of using this amazing technology is being able to recognize the disease on its earliest stage, and certainly highly increase the chances to prevent the disease. The sensor can pick up the very early signs of bacterial invasions and related sicknesses by analyzing our breath and transmitting information about possible sicknesses to the doctors.

For the tests and experiments led by Michael McAlpine and his scientific group of Princeton University experts, it was decided to install the created ‘tooth tatoo’ sensor on a cow’s tooth. Several students of the University were invited to participate the experiment. They were asked to breath on the sensor planted on cow’s tooth, pick up molecules from the participants’ breath, recognize the infections and bacteria in breath, and send the information to the computers of the scientists. All the experiments were successful and the collected information about early bacteria signs was transmitted successfully giving an opportunity to determine early signs of the developing infections.

Princeton young scientists are very proud about their scientific development and suggest a great deal of applications for their new technology. In particular, according to Michael McAlpine, ‘tooth tatoo’ can be a great solution for all military stuff in the filed, where no opportunity can be found to use serious and complicated medical equipment. For example, this technology can allow easily finding out if a wound or other injury has become infected and can cause serious complications. Besides, this innovative technology can be of a great help in all modern hospitals, especially in those cases when patients have weakened immune system and have extreme sensitivity to all sorts of bacteria and infections. Michael McAlpine and his scientific team are currently thinking about commercializing their new invention, obtaining a license for producing it and making ‘tooth tatoo’ available for everyone.

Tags: tooth tatoo

Posted: April 12th, 2012 under Innovations In Dentistry.
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For some time already British dental specialists have been offering a new interesting collagen treatment to those patients who suffer from increased tooth sensitivity. This revolutionary dental technology helps prevent and treat pain and unpleasant effects of increased tooth sensitivity caused by receding gums. This is one of the most common problem nowadays, known also among the specialists as gingival recession, which is linked to gum line retraction and exposing dental neck of the teeth. According to the latest statistics, more than a half of adult population of modern Britain have to combat this dental problem.

Gingival recession can be caused by heredity factors, bad dental care and bad brushing habits (first of all, too aggressive brushing and using too hard dental brush), chronic dental problems, and also bruxism (a habit of tooth grinding, intentional or unintentional), as well as other factors. This is a very serious dental problem which is linked to dental infections, plaque, tooth loos, and so on. And the most distressful thing is that it is impossible for gums to be restored in a natural way once they have receded and made tooth necks exposed.  The most common treatment for such problem involved tooth drilling and filling in the gum line.

The new collagen treatment named AlloDerm, is resembling gum transplantation. It was created to treat such health problems as hernia, breast reconstruction or repairing abdominal tissues. The core of the technology is using for transplantation special collagen tissues received from a patient’s donor tissue. This collagen substance is received from proteins that are responsible for body cell elasticity and structure. The procedure involves using anesthesia, lifting the shrunk gums from the teeth and implanting the donor tissues under the gum line, using stitching or special safe adhesive materials.

Many dental specialists underline that the procedure is very safe, fast and effective. Dr Simon Darfoor, who worked in one of the dental clinics in London and performs this collagen treatments quite often, said: ‘The donor collagen provides a quick solution  -  it takes 15 to 20 minutes to treat one tooth. Cutting palate tissue can leave it very sore. You’re also limited to how much you can use at any one time. To treat four to five teeth you have to go back an equal number of times. That’s nine months of treatment.’ There is a great deal of happy patients, too. ‘It was painless, except for the anaesthetic injections,’ said one of the patients who underwent the collagen treatment.

Tags: collagen treatment, gingival recession

Posted: February 10th, 2012 under Innovations In Dentistry.
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Thousands of people experience very strong dental phobias, and that is why they try to do everything possible to delay their visits to dentists. They hold on and try not to notice their toothache or other dental problems until it is too late. As a result – more pain, more expenses, and more dental phobias. That is why modern dental specialists are trying so hard to move on with their researches and investigations, and offer us more and more of effective dental technologies which would be painless and help us get rid of our dental phobias. An innovation called hi-tech ‘plasma brush’, or a new dental cavity drill, is one of those. This amazing device can help to drill a hole in a rotten tooth that needs a filling in just about 30 seconds. At that, the patient will not feel pain and no discomfort, just only only a slight cooling sensation.

This new dental technology uses special chemical compounds and processes which allow to disinfect the cavity before placing a filling, as well as forms a bond on the tooth in much more effectively than the present available dental technologies, meaning that the filling can last way longer.

This innovation was created by a group of specialists from the University of Missouri together with the experts from company Nanova. Though the trials are still on, all the involved specialists are convinced that this dental technology is going to be a breakthrough in modern dental practice. Qingsong Yu, one of the study leaders and dental researcher, comments on the findings and the opportunities to use this wonderful plasma brush as the following: ‘There have been no side effects reported during the lab trials, and we expect the human trials to help us improve the prototype.’

It is estimated that every three or four dental procedures in modern world require dental filling, and the factor as dental phobias play a serious role for making people avoid dental care procedures. This innovative dental technology provided the trial are successful could cause a real breakthrough and make dental care services be available for all of those people who suffer from dental phobias. It will allow drilling a rotten tooth without pain and dreadful feelings. If the tests and trials are successful and the technology is approved by the most of the world’s health organization, the innovative plasma brush will appear in the market and be available to the dentists at the end of the year of 2013.

Tags: dental phobias, dental technoligy, plasma brush

Posted: January 7th, 2012 under Innovations In Dentistry.
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