Januari 26, 2017
have you ever bit into a popsicle, expectingfruity deliciousness, and got blinding pain instead? if so, you might have sensitive teeth. desensitizing toothpastes are designed tohelp, by blocking the pain caused by heat, cold, or pressure in a couple different ways. but how exactly do they work? and what causes tooth sensitivity in the firstplace? those are the kinds of questions that youcome to scishow to get answered. so first, you have to understand a littletooth anatomy.
the crown of a tooth is the part you can see. and it’s made up of three layers: the enamel,the dentin, and the pulp. tooth enamel is the hardest substance in yourbody, and it’s mostly made of minerals, like the calcium-containing hydroxyapatite. since enamel doesn’t contain any livingcells, your body can’t replace it if it’s worn away, like by grinding or lactic acidfrom bacteria. dentin is made of some minerals and organiccompounds, and has lots of microscopic pores, or tubules, that run all the way down to thepulp. [for reference only]
and the pulp has cells called odontoblaststhat make the dentin, plus some connective tissue, nerve cells, and blood vessels. without enamel covering those tubules in thedentin, stuff like air and liquids can get in and irritate your nerves, which send signalsto your brain so you feel pain. desensitizing toothpaste can kind of stopthis from happening, with chemicals that interact with the nerves or open tubules. see, nerve cells have these proteins calledion channels, which get triggered by something, open up, and let ions move around to changethe cell’s electrical charge so it sends a signal.
when you use toothpaste that has potassiumnitrate, for example, extra potassium ions can flow through the tubules and flood yournerves, which could mess up their ability to signal. basically, it works like a numbing agent. your nerves can still be exposed to the heator cold, but your brain doesn’t register it. on the other hand, a chemical like strontiumchloride can /block/ the tubules in the dentin, because strontium has a similar structureto calcium, which is one of those minerals in your teeth.
with the tubules blocked, nothing can getin to irritate the nerves, so the pain is gone.-- so, will brushing sensitive teeth with desensitizingtoothpaste actually heal them for good? well, no. not at all. it’s like treating hay fever with allergymedicine — just because the symptoms go away doesn’t mean the problem is gone. and the real problem here is the eroded enamel,which you can’t make more of. sometimes, achy teeth can be a symptom ofsomething else, so you should always ask a
dentist to avoid bigger problems down theroad. so, in the long run, desensitizing toothpasteprobably won’t toughen up your teeth. but if you just want to enjoy a popsicle pain-free,it might do the trick. thanks to patreon patron shavastak for asking,and thanks to all our patrons who keep these answers coming. if you’d like to submit a question to beanswered, just go to patreon.com/scishow, and don’t forget to go to youtube.com/scishowand subscribe.
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