Pitts N B, Wright J P
1 Dental Innovation and Translation Centre, King's College London Dental Institute, London, UK.
2 Reminova Ltd., Inveralmond Business Centre, Perth, UK.
Adv Dent Res. 2018 Feb;29(1):48-54. doi: 10.1177/0022034517737026.
This article aims to outline the early development of a King's College London dental spinout company, Reminova, formed to commercialize a novel clinical method of caries remineralization: electrically accelerated and enhanced remineralization (EAER). This method is being developed to address the unmet clinical need identified by modern caries management strategies to keep enamel "whole" through remineralization of clinical caries as a form of nonoperative caries treatment for initial-stage and moderate lesions. A progressive movement within dentistry is shifting away from the restorative-only model, which, it is suggested, has failed. The high prevalence of initial-stage caries across populations provides a significant opportunity to prevent restorations and reduce repeat restorations over a patient's lifetime. Reminova has set out to provide a method to repair lesions without drilling, filling, pain, or injections. The article outlines the rationale for and the chronological stages of the technology and company development. It then outlines corroborative evidence to show that EAER treatment can, in this preliminary in vitro investigation, remineralize clinically significant caries throughout the depth of the lesion as measured by Knoop microhardness and corroborated by scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, the presented data show that EAER-treated enamel is harder than the healthy enamel measured nearby in each sample and is very similar in appearance to healthy enamel from the subjective interpretation made possible by scanning electron microscopy imagery. The data presented also show that this more "complete" remineralization to a high hardness level has been achieved with 2 remineralizing agents via in vitro human tooth samples. The broad clinical potential of this new treatment methodology seems to be very encouraging from these results. Reminova will strive to continue its mission, to ensure that, in the future, dental teams will not need to drill holes for the treatment of initial-stage and moderate caries lesions.
本文旨在概述伦敦国王学院一家牙科衍生公司Reminova的早期发展历程。该公司旨在将一种新型龋病再矿化临床方法商业化，即电加速增强再矿化（EAER）。开发这种方法是为了满足现代龋病管理策略所确定的未满足的临床需求，通过对临床龋病进行再矿化来保持牙釉质的“完整”，作为对初期和中度病变的一种非手术龋病治疗形式。牙科领域正在发生一种渐进的转变，即从仅采用修复治疗的模式（有人认为这种模式已经失败）转变。人群中初期龋病的高患病率为预防修复治疗以及减少患者一生中的重复修复治疗提供了重大机遇。Reminova已着手提供一种无需钻孔、填充、疼痛或注射就能修复病变的方法。本文概述了该技术和公司发展的基本原理及按时间顺序排列的各个阶段。然后概述了确证性证据，表明在这项初步的体外研究中，通过努氏显微硬度测量并经扫描电子显微镜证实，EAER治疗能够使整个病变深度的具有临床意义的龋病实现再矿化。此外，所呈现的数据表明，经EAER治疗的牙釉质比每个样本中附近测量的健康牙釉质更硬，并且从扫描电子显微镜图像所做的主观解读来看，其外观与健康牙釉质非常相似。所呈现的数据还表明，通过体外人牙样本，使用两种再矿化剂已实现了这种更“完全”的再矿化至高硬度水平。从这些结果来看，这种新治疗方法的广泛临床潜力似乎非常令人鼓舞。Reminova将努力继续其使命，以确保在未来，牙科团队无需为治疗初期和中度龋病病变而钻孔。
