A gel to replace dental fillings? Not quite, one professor says

By Kristi E. Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cavities. Ugh.

Tooth decay means a longer time in the dentist’s chair -- but what if there’s a way to get around that?

Scientists in France say they’ve developed a gel that can help decayed teeth grow back in just weeks, according to an article in the Daily Mail.

The gel works by prompting cells in teeth to start multiplying. Those cells form new tooth tissue that gradually replaces what has been lost to decay, the Daily Mail said.

The gel contains a hormone that a team of scientists at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris tested to see if it could stimulate tooth growth.

Their findings were published in the American Chemical Society journal.

But the publicity that has followed has “missed the point,” according to Dr. David Pashley, a professor at the Medical College of Georgia.

“It blew it out of proportion and said it’s the biggest thing since fluoride. Not really,” Pashley told the AJC.

Pashley said what the scientists are doing -- tissue engineering -- will eventually work, but the process will take some time. He doesn’t expect any sort of whiz-bang replacement for traditional dental fillings for another five or 10 years.

In short, Pashley said there’s not an easy fix for cavities, which happen when bacteria invade a tooth’s enamel and dentin.

“You can’t just squirt a gel or put something in a cavity and hope something works,” he said.

How would Pashley know? He has published more than 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals -- and about two-thirds of them deal with the structure and function of dentin, according to the Medical College of Georgia’s Web site.