New micro-robots can break apart and remove biofilm or plaque from a tooth

https://humanbioscience.org/2019/04/new-micro-robots-can-break-apart-and-remove-dental-biofilm-or-plaque-from-a-too.html

by techben • 7 years ago

144 43 7 years ago

humanbioscience.org

falcongod082• 7 years ago

Can they use the carbon to self-replicate yet? That's when things get interesting.

geuis• 7 years ago

If you have carbon based machines replicating on your teeth, isn’t that just more plaque?

ctrl-j• 7 years ago

I believe they are making an allusion to Grey Goo [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo

adrianN• 7 years ago

As long as the machines don't produce acid that should be fine.

jaequery• 7 years ago

What next, micro-robots that breaks apart cells? Scary stuff.

taneq2• 7 years ago

Yeah, it's called "bleach" but it's really made up of autonomous nanobots which steal electrons from cell walls.

ghkbrew• 7 years ago

I know the line is blurry, but I disagree that clumps of iron oxide nanoparticles rise to the level of "robot"

taneq2• 7 years ago

This irritates me too, and I see it all the time. No, a sliver of metal or a piece of plastic being excited by an indiscriminate outside force is not a robot.

If there's offboard sensing and control systems which can maneuver the particles individually then you could make a case for it. If you're just jiggling them with a magnetic field then no.

yorwba• 7 years ago

The reason you're seeing it all the time is probably because roboticists are very excited about using external magnetic fields to create smaller designs that don't require carrying a power source, without worrying whether those are still "robots".

For example, the best paper award at the Robotics: Science and Systems conference this year was won by a magnetic jellyfish: http://www.roboticsproceedings.org/rss15/p13.pdf

Maybe the magnet should be counted as part of the robot, with the moving parts being analogous to a gripper.

amelius• 7 years ago

Reminds me of the philosophical question: can rocks think?

corysama• 7 years ago

https://twitter.com/daisyowl/status/841802094361235456

adornedCupcake• 7 years ago

My master thesis was on a magnetic traps for microfluidics. I'm not really up to speed on the field anymore, but it's exciting to recognize much of what's being used, and with such a direct application.

rasmusfabbe• 7 years ago

That website is 90% shady ads and 10% article. Even if this is an actual legit article, the way it’s presented here takes away any chance of me taking this seriously.

ddeck• 7 years ago

Less shady link (the article source):

https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/army-microrobots-can-wipe-o...

And the original publication:

https://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/4/29/eaaw2388

the8472• 7 years ago

https://sci-hub.tw/10.1126/scirobotics.aaw2388

johnydepp• 7 years ago

Recently, I started using Firefox plugin NoSript which stops javascript execution on random websites. It makes browsing little better.

I started using it when I found out one tab was eating 2GB of RAM. I think in todays world its very important that you allow only selected trusted websites to run Javascript!

krenzo• 7 years ago

But in response to users disabling javascript, sites now only load the first paragraph and require you to click a button to fully load the page.

pndy• 7 years ago

Submitting account is suspicious as well - 3 uploads across 74 days from same site, no comments

toothandtail• 7 years ago

Star trek style nan bots IRL!?

mkagenius• 7 years ago

I hope this works, could be used to wash dishes in the sink as well.

theprotocol7• 7 years ago

I used to have to go to the dentist every 5-6 months in order to remove built-up plaque that kept returning.

After starting supplementation with vitamin K2 every few days (a combination of MK-4 500mcg and Mk-7 100mcg), within a few weeks the plaque came off on its own when I brushed my teeth, and now I just don't have any plaque anymore.

This doesn't work for everyone, and for me, the MK-4 form alone did not produce this effect. The MK-4 form is sort of like "preformed" K2, as opposed to the MK-7 form, which is more like a precursor that persists in your blood for much longer before being converted as needed. It probably has something to do with dental plaque / biofilm being calcium-based, and vitamin K2 causes calcium to be removed from inappropriate places in the body.

I much prefer this to something fully engineered like micro-robots.

edit: It seems it's not really "micro-robots" after all; nonetheless, I much prefer nutritional intervention when effective.

e40• 7 years ago

Can you give details of the product you used?

theprotocol7• 7 years ago

I personally use a product called Doctor's Hope MK4+MK7.

Disclaimer: I do not advise anyone to take this. I'm just reporting on my own experience.

I am not affiliated with anything related to healthcare or nutrition. I am just a software developer.

edit: I also don't take this that frequently anymore. I take it once a week only, with a meal (K2 is fat soluble). If I take it too frequently, it gives me some digestive discomfort.

roel_v3• 7 years ago

Did you research the product more at the time? Is it just a matter of googling 'vitamin k2' and buying from the first reputable source? How did you notice that plaque came off when brushing?

theprotocol7• 7 years ago

I've been a reader of health and nutritional science for many years. Yes, I researched vitamin K2 before taking it. No, I am not into random bro-science. I am highly objective and have been able to achieve good results with various nutritional interventions, for several deficiency-related conditions.

The reason I started taking it was not dental plaque, but because my diet had few sources of vitamin K2 (due to diagnosed digestive issues) and the scientific consensus was that it is a valuable nutrient that occurs in diets correlated with reduced cardiac and other disease. I understand that correlation is not causation, but it is plausible that adding something missing in my diet could produce a benefit, and my mission was to correct deficiencies. It is, after all, a nutrient found in common foods.

I had read the claims about its effects on plaque incidentally to my research, but did not consider them factual because this effect had not been studied to my knowledge.

Several hours after taking K2, my teeth would start to feel a bit smoother. About a week and a half later, bits of plaque would start coming off my teeth when I brushed them. To answer your question, you can't not notice it. It's a chunk of solid white gunk that I couldn't previously remove from my teeth that has now become detached.

After a year or so I neglected supplementation with vitamin K2. The plaque eventually returned, albeit very slowly. Upon resuming vitamin K2, it would again dissolve.

I understand your skepticism with regard to n=1 vs. scientific theory, but I am a pragmatic person. I have been able to repeat this, and I can confirm it works for me. To put theory over practice when the reality of it stared me in the face would have been fallacious.

whycombagator• 7 years ago

For buying supplements I'd look at something from Jarrow, Solaray, or Now (ordered based on my preferences).

For researching supplements take a look at Examine.com

fasteo• 7 years ago

This is also my experience and if you want to get as much mk-4 and mk-7 as possible from diet, aged cheese (especially french münster cheese) and beef liver are an excellent source

tmoertel• 7 years ago

Natto, a traditional Japanese dish made of fermented soybeans, is especially rich in mk-7. It's the result of an alkaline fermentation process, which makes it initially challenging to Western palates more familiar with the tangy acidic fermentation processes used to make "half-sour" pickles, sauerkraut, and kombucha.

I've tried natto, and it does take some getting used to. Fortunately, a small amount is all you need.

According to Chris Masterjohn, "the foods that are richest in K2 are natto and goose liver, both of which may be difficult-to-acquire tastes. Natto is a fermented soy food popular in eastern Japan. The source of K2 is the bacteria used in the fermentation, not the soy beans. As a result, any vegetable fermented with natto bacteria should be rich in K2. For example, 100 grams of traditional natto contains just under 950 μg, while 100 grams of natto made from black beans contains almost 800 μg. The value for black bean natto is a little lower than that for traditional natto, but both values are phenomenally high. Simply adding 18 grams of natto (about two-thirds of an ounce) to your diet each day would give you 200 μg, and just two ounces of goose liver would provide the same benefit."

Source: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/blog/2016/12/09/the-ultimate-...

winchling• 7 years ago

In my case K2 even seemed to prevent customary tea stains from forming.

simonebrunozzi• 7 years ago

Thanks for sharing your results.

How did you find out about vitamin K2 and its effects on dental plaque in the first place?

theprotocol7• 7 years ago

I love reading about nutrition so I just happened to read several articles about K2 which prompted me to look at the relevant research. K2 is pretty big in ketogenic circles, so there's quite a bit of content written about it, although I do not subscribe to ketogenic diet theory at all.

Part of my research involves reading impressions and reviews posted online. I take it all with a grain of salt, of course, but as long as you label it as low quality data, it still has value. Sometimes it matches up with research. In the case of the effect on dental plaque, I could not find any research backing it up, so I discarded it as a fact but I was still aware of it; later, when I observed the benefit in my own experience, knowing that others reported the same thing helped me determine that it was in fact the K2 that did it (and then I knew to re-test K2 to confirm it).

bigmit37• 7 years ago

I’m reading about vitamin K2 now. It seems like dairy products have a lot of vitamin K2 which is pretty common in Western diet. So wouldn’t they already reap the benefits?

It also promotes blood clotting, which is a bad think for heart patients no? Don’t asprin and blood thinners try to prevent blood clotting?

New micro-robots can break apart and remove biofilm or plaque from a tooth

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