SUNSTAR

Let’s join Prof. Masaki Kambara’s Cariology Laboratory for one day and listen to his lectures.

	01.	Are shark teeth made of fluoride? »
	02.	Adults are not good at brushing their teeth, actually. »
	03.	What is the life span of teeth? »



Many of you may think that once attacked by caries, teeth never repair themselves. However, this is not true. Small tooth decay lesions are created on our teeth every day, but without us being aware of it, the teeth repair themselves through a process that is called “remineralization.” And fluoride is useful in this process. While fluoride is generally said to “help prevent dental caries,” what it does in fact is promote the natural healing of dental caries. The fact is that the teeth do not simply wear away through everyday chewing, decay and just wait to eventually fall out. Like the skin, the teeth can regenerate following damage and are changing permanently.

Tooth is the hardest and most durable organ of the human body although it is permanently changing. This can be seen from the fact that mummies have been found with teeth. But how about the people of today? Among Japanese adults at 80 years of age, the average number of retained teeth is eight. At around 50 years of age, people begin losing their teeth, and in the following 30 years, they lose as many as twenty. Not changing the lifestyle which leads to dental caries is considered to be the main reason for people having new tooth decay after treatment of another and losing so many teeth. The ideal teeth are those healthy ones that can regenerate themselves without any treatment.

Real skull in Prof. Kambara’s Laboratory. With healthy teeth, of course.

Simply put, human teeth have no life span. I have seen many times people over 100 years of age, who have a complete set of their own teeth. Their teeth were ground down from a lifetime of chewing, but they were still functioning well. “People with good teeth live long” is an old saying, and modern medicine has started studying the relationship of dental caries and gum disease to systemic diseases. We are all equipped with teeth to be used for a lifetime. And their life span depends on the prevention of caries. In future, the above saying may be changed to “People who are good at brushing teeth with fluoride containing toothpaste live longer.”

If you care for them, your teeth will care for you all life long.