As a family that focuses on natural health, stressing prevention rather than intervention, we have been known for avoiding doctor visits as much as possible. We don’t do “well baby” visits since every time we did, the baby would end up sick. Since we don’t vaccinate, there really is no sense in making a yearly trip to the doctor. I can check my children’s height and weight just as well as the doctor can. And I don’t have to pay $80 to listen to untruths such as what to feed my baby or that children don’t need vitamins. Unfortunately, this feeling against the mainstream medical establishment carried over into our oral health, which proved to back fire in a big way. I will explain; and then I will tell you everything you need to know to properly take care of your children’s teeth.
Since teeth are considered dead, similar to hair, we often don’t think of them as living, breathing, well, not really breathing, but living things nonetheless. But they are. Just as having poor health can affect our teeth, so can poor teeth affect our health. This is especially true for little ones who have developing immune systems which are simultaneously fighting off all kinds of new viruses and bacteria. This is why it is important to monitor what’s going on in our children’s mouths, before we visit the dentist! What many of us don’t understand, at no fault of our own, is what causes cavities and how to prevent them.
Ortek Therapeutics, Inc., and Stony Brook University announced that new data published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Dentistry demonstrate the effects of a new chewable mint in preventing cavities in children. This investigational product, called BasicMints™, contains CaviStat®, an innovative, fluoride-free, cavity-fighting complex. CaviStat is designed to mimic the profound cavity fighting benefits of saliva, by neutralizing harmful plaque acids and simultaneously promoting the remineralization of the tooth structure. The results show the children who were administered BasicMints had 62 percent fewer cavities in their molars after one year compared to children in the placebo group.
CaviStat was developed and clinically tested by researchers in the Department of Oral Biology and Pathology at Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine. The technology was patented and exclusively licensed to Ortek by the Research Foundation of State University of New York (SUNY) through its campus arm, the Office of Technology Licensing & Industry Relations (OTLIR), the entity responsible for licensing SUNY technology. Ortek is one of Stony Brook University's successful local start-up companies that OTLIR helped to found. The company is planning to submit an Investigational New Drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later this year. BasicMints are not currently approved for use in the U.S. All of the components of CaviStat are naturally present in the human body.
"Cavities affect the quality of life for millions of children every year by causing them pain, to miss school days and cost billions of dollars to repair annually," said Israel Kleinberg, D.D.S., Ph.D., lead researcher and inventor of the CaviStat technology and Distinguished Professor and Founding Chairman of the Department of Oral Biology and Pathology at SBU School of Dental Medicine. "This study shows for the first time that this new fluoride-free, cavity-fighting tool has the potential to significantly improve the oral health of children."
