Discovery News - How to blow a story out of proportion in one paragraph or less

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Dentalcompare
Clinical Director

I had a friend forward this article to me from Discovery News. Eric Bland talks about a new gel used to repair teeth that is so amazing, “Dentists could soon hang up their drill.” He goes on to say that “The new gel or thin film could eliminate the need to fill painful cavities or drill deep into the root canal of an infected tooth.” There are other sensationalized comments, but those are my favorites.

Without trying to sound controversial, the article completely misses the mark on what the aim of the original research had been. I think there was a moment there that I forgot I was reading Discovery News, and thought I clicked a link to the Enquirer.

If you look at the original research article, there is no mention of treating decay at all. The article discusses a concept in dentistry called “pulpal regeneration”. Basically, if a cavity gets to deep and allows bacteria to enter into the nerve of the tooth, the current standard of care requires completely sterilizing the internal part of the tooth to prevent proliferation of the bacteria. This process also kills the pulpal cells of the tooth. The research on PGA-alpha-MSH looked at a way to try to regenerate those cells to keep the tooth alive. What they are looking at is to end root canals by regrowing your own cells.

So will dentists hang up their drills? Not from this stuff. It doesn’t prevent decay, and it certainly doesn’t grow mineralized enamel structure back. It also doesn’t preclude the use of the drill to replace defective fillings or crowns.

Further, if a filling is painful while it is being worked on, my recommendation would be to ask for more numbing, or go somewhere else. It’s 2010. We should be able to make our patients comfortable.

So it seems that Discovery News is in need of a Dental News Correspondent who can convey accurate information to properly educate people rather than distort and sensationalize.

I’m available. Just throwing that out there.

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