New gel restores dental enamel and could revolutionise tooth repair

by CGMthrowawayon 11/5/2025, 7:44 PMwith 251 comments

Study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64982-y

by halosghoston 11/6/2025, 2:09 AM

Hey @dang (I know it doesn't work, but isn't it fun to use your imagination?), can we get this press release replaced by a link to the actual paper [0]? This one is even open-access!

All the best,

-HG

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64982-y

by avalyson 11/5/2025, 7:59 PM

Is this a commercial product that has been approved by a regulator to make these claims? Amazing. Newsworthy.

Is this a press release from a university research group, as it appears to be (the site is down)? Then it's nearly meaningless.

by anonnonon 11/6/2025, 2:12 AM

> When applied, the gel creates a thin and robust layer that impregnates teeth, filling holes and cracks in them.

Having an option other than crowning to treat cracks would be a game-changer, especially since the AAE not long ago put out a policy paper recommending that all teeth with cracks (even asymptomatic) receive crown coverage, which is both costly and presents a risk of inducing irreversible pulpitis and subsequent necrosis in the tooth (due to the heat and mechanical trauma of the crown prep.).

by t1234son 11/5/2025, 8:21 PM

There is the potential of ability of people to regrow teeth

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a66012157/hu... regrowth-trials-japan/

This would highly disrupt the dental-industrial-complex

by sizzleon 11/6/2025, 10:24 AM

What about Hydroxyapatite?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxyapatite

Anyone on this stuff? I want to take a break from fluoride paste.

by mikelabatton 11/6/2025, 1:53 AM

Any thoughts on how this might be different from existing products like GC Tooth Mousse (CPP-ACP-based, recommended by our children's dentist)?

A paper from 2011 on the topic:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9374843/

by timenotwastedon 11/5/2025, 7:52 PM

I feel like I've been reading this exact same article for the last 15 years.. I find it very difficulty to parse what is real and what is vaporware in the medical breakthroughs community.

by cormoranton 11/5/2025, 8:47 PM

EDIT: https://archive.is/MYBSe

Site is down, not in archive.org or archive.today. This Yandex Cache link worked for me: https://yandexwebcache.net/yandbtm?fmode=inject&tm=176237557...

by seethishaton 11/6/2025, 12:52 PM

Doesn't xylitol gum do the same thing? Re-mineralize teeth?

by Waterluvianon 11/5/2025, 8:04 PM

If anyone's a dentist or is close to one, I'd love to know something I haven't found a satisfactory answer for online: if the vast majority of cavities were "magically" cured over the next few years, what impact would that have on the finances of your practice?

I'm not suggesting there's a conscious conspiracy or anything malicious. But I observe that incentives are weirdly aligned. I wonder what this kind of thing would do to a very large industry if all of a sudden some percentage of business disappeared. Is it a large percentage? Would they pivot to more preventative medicine? Would patients adopt a longer duration between checkups?

by ptrl600on 11/5/2025, 8:00 PM

Well until this stuff comes out I'll keep using smuggled FDA-unapproved Novamin toothpaste. Atonement for my neglect

by maxgluteon 11/5/2025, 11:49 PM

As someone with low maintenance teeth how far has dental tech procedures improved in last 30 years? Feels dental hygienist are all using tools that haven't changed in decades.

by swiftcoderon 11/6/2025, 11:04 AM

Is this going to be another Theodent?

For the uninitiated, Theodent is a $100/tube toothpaste made with the chocolate extract theobromine, instead of fluoride, based on a similar paper quite a while back.

by Razenganon 11/5/2025, 8:18 PM

You know it's weird how we don't have a general "healing" gel yet..

by blobberson 11/5/2025, 8:19 PM

Pretty sure I get re-targeted by ads for various versions of this for weeks on end after I do a single google search for a new toothpaste.

Usually the safety profiles of those companies are very very very bad, but probably reference very good research.

by willgaxon 11/6/2025, 6:16 AM

one of my front tooth was chipped years ago while playing around and some days ago i was feeling sensitive in that tooth i take very good care of my teeth, when i visited dentist he said this tooth will die sooner or later because of trauma it endured the nerves will slowly die and we eventually have to do root canal. i was very disappointed to know that there is nothing i can do to keep that tooth alive

by kawfeyon 11/5/2025, 9:59 PM

I just went down a rabbit hole researching a toothpaste that's giving me constant ads. I went looking for reviews and ended up posting a comment on /r/PeriodontalDisease - https://old.reddit.com/r/PeriodontalDisease/comments/1bcna04...

TL;DR: EDTA is the magic ingredient that will annihilate the disease-causing biofilm on your teeth & gums, especially when you fund your own studies and spend the rest of your money made from your overpriced toothpaste gel on marketing.

Just brush and floss 2x a day, and chew gum if you like to.

by kazinatoron 11/5/2025, 8:10 PM

Screw enamel; man-made materials are better.

If you ever get into any serious money, forget cars or houses: have your teeth ripped out and replaced with artificial ones.

by shartson 11/6/2025, 4:31 AM

Sounds like...Novamin? That good stuff we used to have but is now not legal in the US but available to other countries.

Hmm.

by byearthithatiuson 11/5/2025, 8:05 PM

Poorly designed studies, materials proposed without insight into ramifications and manufacturing, and P-Hacking has ruined the publics trust in science. I blatantly just ignore any headline like this now. Can't trust science anymore.... sad. How many new "cancer cures" have been posted to Reddit and HN over the last decade that never came to fruition.

Not to say doing the science and studying to find new approaches is not beneficial. I just think we need to reconsider how we communicate new research. Its like how CEOs hype up AI products at this point. "This will change everything ..... potentially maybe in twenty years (omitted)"

by HumblyTossedon 11/5/2025, 11:22 PM

How many of these have we heard about over the years and yet … none ever come to market.

by afavouron 11/5/2025, 8:03 PM

Is it Fuji 9?

by cubefoxon 11/6/2025, 6:16 AM

Coincidentally, there recently was a very similar story from another UK university, where they used a substance found in hair to make a new "tooth repair" toothpaste:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44922571

by andrewstuarton 11/6/2025, 5:18 AM

I ask my dentist about this cause it keeps appearing.

He’s a pretty modern dentist I think. He has no idea about it.

by neuroelectronon 11/6/2025, 4:37 AM

I'd like to see more of these raw, VC-targeted advertisements posted here. I mean after all isn't that the point of this forum?

by kilibeon 11/6/2025, 9:30 AM

Finally, a gel that regrows enamel like Wolverine’s claws—minus the adamantium bill. Dentists, polish your résumés; the Tooth Fairy’s about to unionize.