The natural history of the dental pellicle and its relationship to dental erosion

牙齿侵蚀（DE）通常由膳食酸引起，并会影响生活质量。我们的数据显示，45%的精英运动员受到酸性运动饮料和环境挑战的影响，尽管一般人群的患病率很高。简单地提高运动饮料的pH值会使它们变得不可口。研究问题：1.牙菌膜在牙齿腐蚀中的作用是什么？2.牙菌膜和牙侵蚀能在实验室里模拟吗？3.如何在体外表征牙釉质表面的变化？4.如何在体外方法量化牙釉质变化的临床使用，在体内评估牙齿侵蚀？5.是否可以修改牙科薄膜的组成/结构以降低牙齿侵蚀的风险？接近1。牙侵蚀的体外模型将开发新的方法来模拟口腔条件下，有和没有糖蛋白层的牙表膜的贡献。采用光学扫描、显微层析成像和表面扫描等方法对模型和检测系统的有效性进行了研究.一旦成功的DE模型得到验证，将在模型中对运动补充剂、饮料和凝胶进行测试，并与标准对照进行测试，以确定其在有和没有牙膜的情况下的侵蚀特性。3.糜烂检测方法将基于可能用于口腔临床（体内）评估糜烂的技术，因此可能在未来引入临床实践。我们还将收集运动员在强化训练前后的唾液，以研究是否发生了可能促进侵蚀的薄膜形成的变化。基于上述研究，我们将创建干预措施，以改变牙表膜的结构和组成，从而减少牙釉质的侵蚀。将对这些药物进行体外活性筛选，然后使用体外研究中开发的釉质侵蚀检测方法进行临床测试6。预期的结果是一种新的方法来修改牙釉质表膜的结构，以减少侵蚀的风险，可用于精英运动和一般人群。

Dental erosion (DE) is usually caused by dietary acids and can affect quality of life. Our data show that 45% of elite athletes are affected particularly due to acidic sports drinks and environmental challenges although general population prevalence is high. Simply raising sports drinks pH makes them unpalatable. Research questions: 1. What is the role of the dental pellicle in dental erosion?2. Can dental pellicle and dental erosion be modelled in the laboratory?3. How can changes to dental enamel surface be characterised in vitro?4. How can in vitro methods of quantifying dental enamel changes be used clinically, in vivo to assess dental erosion?5. Can the dental pellicle composition/structure be modified to reduce risk of dental erosion?Approach1. In vitro modelling of dental erosion will develop new methods to simulate oral conditions both with and without the contribution of a glycoprotein layer of the dental pellicle. The validity of the model and detection system has been investigated with optical scanning methods as well as microtomography and surface scanning methods.2. Once a successful model of DE has been validated, sport supplements, drinks and gels will be tested in the model against a standard control for their erosive characteristics with and without dental pellicle. 3. The erosion detection methods will be based on technology that could potentially be used in the mouth to assess erosion clinically (in vivo) and might therefore be introduced into clinical practice in the future.4. We will also collect saliva from athletes before and after intensive training to investigate whether changes occur to pellicle formation that might promote erosion.5. Based on the above studies, we will create interventions for modifying the structure and composition of the dental pellicle with the potential to reduce erosion of the enamel. These will be screened for activity in vitro and then tested clinically using the enamel erosion detection approach developed in the in vitro studies6. The expected outcome is a new approach to modifying the structure of the enamel pellicle to reduce erosive risk that can be used in elite sport and the general population.