Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage
You know how they seal kids teeth, and insurance covers it? It basically keeps kids from getting cavities until the sealant eventually wears off. Well, they could put the same sealant on adults. But they don’t.
I've lived in at least two places where that treatment is available for adults. Insurance may cover it depending on what kind of insurance you got, it is expensive but not ridiculously so in comparison to other dental procedures.
Uh, no, i don't. Sounds weird, where do they do this?
I had it done in the USA in the 90s when I had my adult teeth, not sure if it was before or after I got my 12 year molars. I asked about it a few years ago and the dentist said that insurance only covers it for kids.
What do they use for sealing? I'm swiss and we don't do this. Is it because you have corn sirup everywhere?
edit: so, uh, is this widespread?
I'm German and this is definitely also done here
I have no idea. It’s white and it cures hard with exposure to UV light. It might just be filling media used as a surface sealant—not a dentist, sorry.
They do that?
Yes. It covers the top of the teeth kids still need to brush really well because you can easily get cavities in between your teeth, etc..
is that the mouthgaurd filled with flavored goo that you have to keep in your mouth for 29 minutes while you drool all over yourself?
And you're basically supposed to do the same thing twice a day with your toothpaste, which is why the tube says "spit out after brushing" and not "make a little cup with your hand and use it to swish some water from the sink around in your mouth, rinsing most of the fluoride off before it has a chance to work".
My wife works in dental insurance so I asked her. She said for the general public, the effectiveness of the sealant decreases as the client ages, because an adult's tooth is more smooth than a child's. So there's a critical age where the cons outweighs the pros.
It's useful in immature teeth because the grooves have not yet taken up enough fluoride to be acid resistant enough against the modern diet. Not all immature teeth need them either, as not everyone has those deep grooves. Furthermore, this only protects against decay on that surface if it's done well - and a lot of the time a wriggly kid means saliva has contaminated the surface and now you have an extra interface of failure.
In adults the benefit is a lot less (if the groove was decay prone, they would have formed a cavity there by the time they see a dentist), and doing this procedure may actually increase the risk of decay than reduce (due to the extra interface of failure).
Lastly, this only protects that surface - not in between teeth. A lot of cavities happen between because there's a lot of plaque being left behind there... Because almost nobody flosses properly.
Use your interdental brushes folks! And stop drinking soda... And use extra high fluoride toothpaste.
One of the reasons we don't seal adult teeth is because insurance doesn't cover it and people don't want to pay for it (there are other reasons like prior fillings, loss of tooth structure, groove being less prominent, etc). If someone asks for it to be done and agrees to pay out of pocket we'll definitely do it.
I was curious about which compound and where it occurs, the article didn't contain the latter. This is the compound's Wikipedia article which provides that info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/3,3%27-Diindolylmethane
found in cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale.
That explains a lot
Oui chef! I also found that its already being sold as a dietary supplement interesting.
Brb about to empty the shelves of broccoli. Both pre chopped AND whole
The molecule is formed during the digestion of broccoli, so unless you're gonna put your digested broccoli back into your mouth it probably won't have the desired effect.
Wait, we don't all partake in resnacking?
Bulimia - twice the taste, and no calories!
It’s 2023, how they ain’t got pills make your teeth grow back ??
Is pill. Goes past teeth.
Same with skin dermatology type conditions. How they fuck do we not have a pill or cream to cure itchy scalp. Why do I need to use expensive shampoos every two days the rest of my life or else I scratch my dandruffy scalp until it bleeds because there's some fungus I now have to deal with until my immune system gets so old that the fungus takes over
It's not long ago I saw a article about regrowth of theeth, but it was not a pill.
Diindolylmethane might act like estrogen in the body, or might also block estrogen effects. So more research is necessary.
I will sacrifice myself and get titties as long as I have good teeth!
edit who am I kidding, I already have removedtiddies
You ran right into the slur filter of lemmy.ml :)
ahh that makes sense now.. I was wondering wtf are removedtitties. I thought they were talking about a mastectomy or something.
DIM doesn’t increase estrogen, it reduces it. It forces the body to metabolize estradiol into 2-hydroxyestrone, which cannot be converted back to estradiol and has lower binding affinity, so it just gets pissed out. It’s often used for breast and thyroid cancer treatments.
So yeah, this could be really bad for women.
Robert Paulson, is that you?
How long until dentists call it fake?
The Big Denta.
I did not need to see that gross picture today thanks for nightmare fuel