I’ve been hearing about a new dental gel called Livionix which apparently works by preventing plaque from sticking to teeth. The active ingredient is something called edathamil, which seems to be either the same thing as, or a close chemical relative of, the common food additive EDTA. EDTA is cheap, but the dental gel is expensive ($20 per 1.7 oz tube). There have been a few studies that seem promising, but all of them are small (10-25 subjects) and published in journals whose reputations I am not familiar with:
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Effects of a Novel Dental Gel on Plaque and Gingivitis: A Comparative Study
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Comparison of Plaque Removal Capabilities between Two Dentifrices
3.Multimodality imaging of the effects of a novel dentifrice on oral biofilm
On the other hand I found reference to (but no text of) another study from 1956 in German suggesting edathamil can decalcify tooth enamal, but I have no idea what doses of edathamil were involved or how it was applied: Muhlemann, H. R., and J. C. Somogyi. Edathamil-induced decalcification of intact and fluoride-treated dental enamel [translated title]. Bulletin der Schweizerischen Akademie der Medizinischen Wissenschaften [1956, 12(6):520-527].
Questions:
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Edathamil is a chelator. Should we be concerned about its effect on amalgam fillings and enamel calcium?
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Livionix does not contain fluoride. Can it be used before or after regular fluoride toothpase and/or fluoride mouth rinse without diminishing its effectiveness?
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The amount of attention this product has been getting seems out of proportion to the small size of the studies that have been published. Am I overreacting?
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Has the manufacturer applied for ADA approval? And is the ADA ever likely to approve a fluoride-free dental gel even if it works as advertised?