DT News - UK - Promising oral care tech launched by Queen Mary spin-off

Dental Tribune International

Thu. 14 April 2016

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LONDON, UK: With the BioMin calcium fluoro-phosphosilicate, dental researchers from Queen Mary University of London have developed a material that has the potential to significantly reduce dental decay and solve tooth sensitivity when used as an ingredient in common oral hygiene brands. On Wednesday, the first commercial product was presented to the public in the form of a remineralising toothpaste during a press launch at the Royal London Hospital Dental Institute.

The BioMinF will only be available to dental professionals in the UK through wholesalers for the time being, BioMin Technologies CEO Richard Whatley said. A launch in high-street stores, however, is anticipated for the end of this year. For users who do not want to brush with a fluoride toothpaste, a fluoride-free version is currently in development. Whatley further added that his company is in talks about licensing the product for use in other dental products, including polishing pastes, varnishes and restorative dental materials.

“Our aim is for the BioMin brand to become synonymous with the treatment of tooth sensitivity in the eyes of both the dental professional and the general public,” he said.

In 2013, the promising invention received the Armourers and Brasiers’ Venture Prize, an annual award given to breakthrough innovations in materials science from the UK. A bioactive glass, it has been developed to adhere to tooth structure through a special polymer, from where it slowly dissolves ions that form fluorapatite, a mineral also found in shark teeth, over an 8–12-hour period to make teeth more resistant to acids from food. According to BioMin founder and Queen Mary Director of Research Prof. Robert Hill, the process has been proven to be more effective than the use of fluorides in conventional toothpastes or professional prophylaxis materials, which are washed away and lose their effect more quickly.

In addition, the fluorapatite formed from brushing with BioMinF toothpaste has shown to effectively reduce dentine hypersensitivity by sealing open dentinal tubules in in vitro studies at Queen Mary.

The team now intends to conduct long-term studies on the effects of the material over the course of the next two years.

Corrections: A previous version of the article incorrectly stated that the press launch took place at the Royal Dental Hospital.

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