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After a root canal is a dead tooth, no more nerve endings or vascular supply this makes the tooth susceptible to subsequent infection and falling out. During a root canal, the dentist drills off the top of an infected tooth to access the soft tissue inside. The dentist then removes the infected dental pulp and fills the space with tiny rubber rods- gutta percha and caps the repaired tooth with a crown.
The hydrogel, which is liquid during injection, contains peptides that self-assemble into a gel at the injection site. The peptides contain a snippet of a protein- vascular endothelial growth factor, which stimulates the growth of new blood vessels. Researchers showed that the self-assembling peptide hydrogel stimulated angiogenesis and persisted under the rodents’ skin for as long as three months.
When they added the new peptide to cultured dental pulp stem cells, they found that the peptide not only caused the cells to proliferate, but also activated them to deposit calcium phosphate crystals-the mineral that makes up tooth enamel. However, when injected under the skin of rats, the peptide degraded within one to three weeks.
The hydrogel in its current form likely won’t reduce the invasiveness or pain of a root canal, researchers are planning future versions of the peptide that contain antimicrobial domains. The antimicrobial portion of the peptide would kill the infection, preserving more of the existing dental pulp, while helping grow new tissue. And the root canal may no longer be such a dreaded procedure.