Laboratory surprise: hair gel regenerates your tooth enamel without drilling or pain
A study from King’s College London demonstrates that keratin can rebuild the crystal structure of enamel. © Illustration Shuttershock
The regeneration of dental enamel seemed until now to be a biological dead end. Once damaged, this protective layer does not grow back. However, a team from King’s College London has just published a discovery in Advanced Healthcare Materials that challenges this inevitability. Their approach is based on an unexpected material: keratin extracted from sheep’s wool.
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The process developed by Sara Gamea and her team exploits a remarkable property of keratin: its ability to spontaneously organize itself into complex crystalline structures when placed in aqueous solution. These keratin films form microscopic spherolitic architectures that serve as templates for the ordered growth of hydroxyapatite crystals, the constituent mineral of enamel.
Concretely, when the gel is applied to a tooth, the keratin infiltrates into the micropores of the demineralized enamel and creates an organic matrix. In contact with calcium and phosphate ions naturally present in saliva, this matrix orchestrates the nucleation of apatite nanocrystals aligned according to the crystallographic orientation of native enamel. The process faithfully mimics the natural biomineralization that occurs during tooth formation.
Dental enamel has a unique structure which gives it remarkable properties protecting our teeth throughout our lives against physical, chemical and thermal attacks. When our material is applied to demineralized or eroded enamel, it promotes crystal growth in an integrated and organized manner, restoring the architecture of our healthy natural enamel.
Tests carried out on human molars with early carious lesions have demonstrated convincing results. Electron microscopy reveals perfect integration between the new crystals and the existing enamel, with continuity along the crystallographic axis. Even more striking: hardness measurements show a substantial restoration of mechanical properties. Treated lesions reach 2.10 gigapascals of hardness, compared to 3.00 for healthy enamel and only 0.07 for untreated lesions.
This approach is clearly different from the infiltrative resins currently used in dentistry, which simply fill spaces without regenerating the crystal structure. With keratin, the repair is not just a blockage: it is a real architectural reconstruction of the enamel.
Keratin offers a transformative alternative to current dental treatments. Not only is it sustainably sourced from biological waste like hair and skin, but it also eliminates the need for traditional plastic resins, commonly used in restorative dentistry, which are toxic and less durable.
The abundant and inexpensive nature of keratin, coupled with a simple manufacturing process using only water, gives this innovation remarkable accessibility potential. It remains to validate the safety and effectiveness of the treatment during in-depth clinical trials before considering application in dental practices.
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