Generic mouthwash does a fantastic job cleaning out your mouth and leaving you with a minty fresh feeling. Now there is a new kind of mouthwash which is under development, that has the potential to eliminate tooth decay and cavities. Developed at the UCLA School of Dentistry, the mouthwash utilizes a new type of anti-microbial technology. A recent clinical study, involving 12 subjects showed remarkable results. Those who rinsed just once with the new mouthwash almost completely eliminated the S. mutans bacteria, known to cause tooth decay.
Generic mouthwash does a fantastic job cleaning out your mouth and leaving you with a minty fresh feeling. Now there is a new kind of mouthwash which is under development, that has the potential to eliminate tooth decay and cavities. Developed at the UCLA School of Dentistry, the mouthwash utilizes a new type of anti-microbial technology. A recent clinical study, involving 12 subjects showed remarkable results. Those who rinsed just once with the new mouthwash almost completely eliminated the S. mutans bacteria, known to cause tooth decay.
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Dental infections are one of the most common ailments in the United States. Unlike other parts of the body, the mouth is exposed every day and is the first line of defense against external organic material. Dental caries, commonly known as tooth decay or cavities, affect over half of all children and the vast majority of adults. The nation spends over $70 billion annually on dental services, mostly going to the treatment of dental caries.
The mouthwash is developed by the chair of the oral biology section at the UCLA School of Dentistry, Wenyuan Shi. The innovative microbial technology is known as STAMP (specifically targeted anti-microbial peptides). The research is also supported by dental care Giant, Colgate-Palmolive and from C3-Jian Inc, a company Shi founded around his patents from UCLA. The specific STAMP technology is known as C16G2.
Typical mouthwash contains a broad spectrum of antibiotics which attack all bacteria, but are only effective for a 12-hour period. They kill the bad bacteria which cause tooth decay, but also many good bacteria which are needed for human health. The result can be a disruption of the body's ecological balance, potentially leaving the body susceptible to bacterial, yeast, and parasitic infections.
The new mouthwash concentrates its attack on specified bacteria that are known to be bad. It is also effective for a more extended period of time.
"With this new antimicrobial technology, we have the prospect of actually wiping out tooth decay in our lifetime," said Shi. He added that this work may lay the foundations for other target-specific "smart bomb" anti-microbials that can be used for other ailments.
More extensive clinical trials are being set for March 2012. If the FDA approves the mouthwash for general use, it would be the first such anti-dental caries drug since fluoride came around back in the 1950's.
The results of the initial clinical trials have been published in the journal, Caries Research.
Link to published article: http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowAbstract&ArtikelNr=330510&Ausgabe=255540&ProduktNr=224219
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