Dental question
October 24, 2022 10:48 AM   Subscribe

Why does calcium sodium phosphosilicate (Novamin) hurt and Silver Diamine Fluoride (SDF) doesn't hurt?

To my inexpert understanding, they're both at least sorta doing the same thing. So what's the actual difference? One is painless and the other is unusably painful.

Confirmed info or informed speculation only, please. Thanks!
posted by aniola to Science & Nature (1 answer total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I am assuming that you are intending to desensitize teeth with either of these.
They intend to do the same thing but in slightly different ways.
The type of sensitivity most people are trying to reduce is caused by exposure of surfaces that are more porous than enamel: dentin or cementum (root surfaces). these surfaces, moreso dentin, have little tubes in them filled with fluid that kinda connect to the nerve inside the tooth.
SDF blocks these tubules with the silver ions.
CSPS acts by breaking down into components similar to tooth structure, and those molecules block the tubules.
Potassium Nitrate, a third type of desensitizer (found in sensodyne) acts to reduce the excitability of the nerve fibers via the tubules.
My clinical experience is with SDF and PN. Both are effective but some people respond better to one or the other and PN is more widely available as it's OTC.
Since I don't have any experience with CSPS, but it is used, I would venture that your experience is simply that you are one of those people who can't tolerate either the CSPS itself of the delivery medium. For everything out there some people are sensitive, and since your teeth are perhaps primed to react to adverse stimuli, your tolerance for something in the CSPS is very low.
posted by OHenryPacey at 1:08 PM on October 24, 2022 [6 favorites]


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