Novel technologies for the prevention and treatment of dental caries: a patent survey
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1University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, COP 3026, Omaha, NE 68198-6025, USA.
Importance Of The Field:
Dental caries is one of the most common preventable childhood diseases; people are susceptible to this ailment throughout their lifetime. In the US, 90% of late adolescents and young adults have dental caries, while 94% of all dentate adults had evidence of treated or untreated coronal caries. Dental caries is often not self-limiting and without proper care can progress until the tooth is destroyed.
Areas Covered In This Review:
In this paper, the etiology of dental caries is briefly introduced. It is followed by a thorough review of patents and literatures on the recent development of various novel technologies for the prevention and treatment of dental caries.
What The Reader Will Gain:
Recent advances in anti-plaque agents, including chemoprophylactic agents, antimicrobial peptides, vaccines, probiotics/replacement therapy and sugar substitutes, and remineralization agents including fluorides and casein phosphopeptides are analyzed. TAKE HOME MASSAGE: Both the discovery of new anti-caries agents and the development of dentotropic delivery systems will be the future focus of this research field.
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