Novel technologies for the prevention and treatment of dental caries: a patent survey.

IMPORTANCE OF THE FIELD: Dental caries is one of the most common preventable childhood diseases; people are susceptible to this ailment throughout their lifetime. In the US, 90% of late adolescents and young adults have dental caries, while 94% of all dentate adults had evidence of treated or untreated coronal caries. Dental caries is often not self-limiting and without proper care can progress until the tooth is destroyed. AREAS COVERED IN THIS REVIEW: In this paper, the etiology of dental caries is briefly introduced. It is followed by a thorough review of patents and literatures on the recent development of various novel technologies for the prevention and treatment of dental caries. WHAT THE READER WILL GAIN: Recent advances in anti-plaque agents, including chemoprophylactic agents, antimicrobial peptides, vaccines, probiotics/replacement therapy and sugar substitutes, and remineralization agents including fluorides and casein phosphopeptides are analyzed. TAKE HOME MASSAGE: Both the discovery of new anti-caries agents and the development of dentotropic delivery systems will be the future focus of this research field.