Novel technologies for the prevention and treatment of dental caries: a patent survey.
BACKGROUND
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.


METHODS
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.


RESULTS
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.
Chen
Fu
F
University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, COP 3026, Omaha, NE 68198-6025, USA.
Wang
Dong
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy; D003773:Dental Plaque / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D010330:Patents as Topic; D017001:Tooth Demineralization / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D014089:Tooth Remineralization / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult