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One might argue that modern dentistry is just barely keeping up with the ability of modern society to destroy teeth.

• vidarh 5y ago
  As an unintentional connoisseur of modern dentistry techniques (my teeth are unusually soft, as every dentist I've ever had since my first filling at age 4 have told me as they've poked them and marvelled at it), I think it's more than keeping up with our ability to destroy teeth in terms of improving the quality of repairs. E.g. I have no metal fillings left any more - I had many when I was younger - as whenever the old metal fillings came loose the were replaced by composite fillings or porcelain. And I hardly have any plastic composite fillings left either, as they got replaced by porcelain as porcelain have gotten cheaper and faster to do. My teeth overall look better today at 46 than they did in my teens despite far more damage. Today porcelain fillings are about as good as gold fillings used to be, but cheaper and better looking (no, I'm not the type to find gold teeth aesthetically pleasing). Getting work done has gotten more comfortable too (so much so that during my last round of dental work my dentist had to use a bite block as I kept falling asleep in the chair and he got tired of waking me up; though admittedly that is probably at least partly because I'm so used to it) But I fully agree that we absolutely badly need a revolution in preventing decay and/or fully restoring teeth rather than repairing or replacing them, though.
  • eru 5y ago
    I read about some amoeba you can colonize your mouth with that will eat the caries causing bacteria. Main downside is aesthetic: the amoeba colonization apparently turns your teeth grey or so.