The effectiveness and safety of treating dentine hypersensitivity with bioactive glasses

牙本质过敏（DH）是一种常见的牙齿疾病，由于暴露的牙本质受到刺激而产生尖锐疼痛，而这种疼痛不能归因于任何其他牙科疾病。它非常普遍，影响了高达69%的英国人口，对生活质量产生了重大影响。用脱敏牙膏刷牙来堵塞开放的牙本质小管是一种常见但有效的方法，可以快速缓解DH。生物活性玻璃在口腔环境中降解并沉淀磷灰石被认为是有益的，并已被引入牙膏中，例如GSK为Sensodyne生产的Novamin （45S5生物玻璃），BioMin Technologies Ltd.为BioMin F生产的含氟生物活性玻璃。扫描电镜显示，开放牙本质小管顶部形成磷灰石，有助于长期缓解疼痛。尽管在模拟生物活性玻璃的磷灰石形成和矿化牙齿组织的化学溶解方面已经付出了相当大的努力，包括最近一项杰出的4D同步辐射x射线断层扫描（xCT）研究，该研究显示了监测牙本质小管大小和脱矿深度变化的能力。然而，迄今为止，我们对牙本质小管内生物活性玻璃颗粒如何与小管壁相互作用，生物活性玻璃对开放小管的大小和遮挡深度如何随时间变化，小管周围和管间牙本质矿物质密度如何变化，以及生物活性玻璃对牙髓的长期安全性了解不足。因此，本项目的目的是：1)更好地了解x射线扫描生物活性眼镜治疗牙本质过敏的有效性；2)评估生物活性眼镜对牙髓的安全性；3)最终开发一种不安全但有效治疗牙本质过敏的新干预措施，以改善口腔健康。

Dentine hypersensitivity (DH) is a commonly occurring dental condition where sharp pain derived from exposed dentine in response to stimuli that cannot be ascribed to any other dental diseases. It is highly prevalent affecting up to 69% of the UK population and has a significant impact on the quality of life. Occlusion of open dentine tubules by brushing teeth with a desensitising toothpaste is a common but effective method that offers a quick alleviation of DH. Bioactive glasses that degrade in oral environment and precipitate apatite were thought to be beneficial, and have been introduced to toothpastes, e.g. Novamin (45S5 Bioglass) for Sensodyne by GSK, fluoride containing bioactive glass for BioMin F by BioMin Technologies Ltd. Apatite formation on top of open dentine tubules were evident by SEM and known to contribute towards long term pain relief.Although considerable effort has been spent on modelling apatite formation of bioactive glasses and the chemical dissolution of mineralised dental tissues including a recent outstanding 4D synchrotron X-ray tomography (xCT) study showing the capacity of monitoring changes in dentine tubule size and demineralisation depth. However, to date we have insufficient understanding of how bioactive glass particles within dentine tubules interact with tubule walls, how the open tubule size and occlusion depth by bioactive glasses change with time and how mineral density of peritubular and intertubular dentine change, the long-term safety of bioactive glass on dental pulp. Therefore, this project aims to 1) better understand the effectiveness of treating dentine hypersensitivity with bioactive glasses using X-ray tomography 2) evaluate the safety of bioactive glasses on dental pulp 3) ultimately develop a new intervention that not safely but also effectively treat dentine hypersensitivity for better Oral Health.