A research group at Queen Mary University of London have developed a very fast dissolving ‘bioactive’ glass that will be put into a toothpaste to repair decayed teeth. This builds upon the researchers prior work with bioactive glass that release fluoride, forming a chemical that mimics tooth and bone mineral. The new toothpaste with bioactive glass developed using chlorine instead of flourine. The chlorine atom and ions are much bigger, which enables them to incorporate much more of it into the glass.
The toothpaste is designed for people who don’t want to use a fluoride-containing toothpaste and for areas of the world where the water is naturally fluoridated. This toothpaste is unique because it can put back the mineral lost from your teeth after consumption of an acidic drink, but without the use of fluoride. The researchers feel that everyone can possibly benefit from the toothpaste.
The researchers have created a company BioMin Technologies Ltd and have launched the first product based on these Chloride-containing glasses called “BioMinC.” According to the company website the toothpaste is available in Autumn 2017, see http://www.biomin.co.uk/products/biomintm-c-toothpaste. The companies prior product “BiominF”, which uses flourine, is currently available.
The website lists some of the benefits of “BioMinC” which says “Developed to help reduce the risk of early decay, staining, sensitive teeth and bad breath” and “Occluded tubules are reasonably resistant to attack from acidic food and beverages.”
Guidance from the American Dental Association suggests that children under 2 years old should not use toothpaste with fluoride https://blog.teethremoval.com/when-should-children-start-using-fluoride-toothpaste/. There is controversy over whether or not fluoride should be used in toothpaste see https://blog.teethremoval.com/fluoride-in-water-does-not-lower-intelligence/ and https://blog.teethremoval.com/large-amounts-of-fluoride-consumed-by-young-children-leads-to-fluorosis/. It is unclear if using chlorine instead of fluorine in toothpaste can help alleviate these concerns but hopefully it is something that is further explored by researchers.
Source: Laura A. Swansbury and et al., Modeling the Onset of Phase Separation in CaO–SiO2–CaCl2 Chlorine-Containing Silicate Glasses. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, vol. 121, issue 22, pp. 5647, 2017.