A new dental treatment has been developed that allows dentists to restore blood vessels to hollowed-out root canals, giving affected teeth renewed vitality and resilience. Previously, the standard treatment for an inflamed pulp, often mistakenly referred to by patients as the tooth nerve, was to remove it through a root canal procedure. The resulting hollow space was then filled with synthetic material and the tooth sealed. While this approach prevented the risk of a smouldering or escalating infection, it also left the tooth lifeless. The new treatment, developed by Luiz Bertassoni and colleagues at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, involves inserting a thin carbon fibre into the root canal and filling the remaining space with a special hydrogel containing dental cells from cell cultures. Once the hydrogel has solidified, the carbon fibre is removed, leaving a microchannel that is filled with endothelial cells from cell cultures. These cells promote the formation of new blood vessels, which can continue to supply the living part of the tooth with blood.
Initial laboratory tests on isolated teeth have shown that new blood vessels formed in the artificial pulp after just seven days. The production of dentin-producing cells also increased. Dr. Andreas Schröder of the Medentes Dental Centre in Berlin Wittenau sees the new treatment as a real alternative to the previous method, stating that “if we have the chance to save our patients’ teeth without losing their vitality, this is a real advance in dentistry.” The new treatment is being closely watched by dentists in Germany and is seen as a promising development in the field of dental medicine.
