A TOOTH has gone to space and landed back on Earth.
The artificial tooth was part of the experiments launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, to the International Space Station in July and was back again in August.
For a month, astronauts onboard grew bacterial on the surface of the artificial tooth.
The oral biofilm study looked at how gravity impacts the composition, structure and activity of oral bacteria among common oral care agents, dentistry.co.uk reported.
Biofilms are composed of microorganisms, including bacteria, that build up on the surfaces of teeth to become dental plaque.
The findings will be important to guide recommendations on how to maintain good oral health in space and on future trips to the Moon and on long-term space missions to Mars. For example, it could give insights into how microgravity affects bacterial growth on tooth surfaces.
Here on Earth, the findings of the oral health space mission will help guide future treatments of tooth decay and gum disease. It could also provide insight into how microgravity affects microbiomes on other bodily surfaces.
Researchers are hoping the study will benefit around half of the world’s population, according to dentistry.co.uk.
The space study was initiated by Colgate-Palmolive and the International Space Station’s U.S. National Laboratory.
“We are looking at the molecular mechanism of disease and how our oral care products are able to intervene,” said co-investigator Harsh Trivedi.
The design of the experiment allowed researchers to unload the samples quickly. This was crucial as they needed to study the experiments quickly on Earth before gravity had a chance to fully take effect.
“Any molecular work is time sensitive,” said co-investigator Trivedi. “You are looking at metabolites and nucleic acids and they degrade over time.”
“Running analyses on all the samples at the same time eliminates a lot of variability of having different people prepping and analyzing samples at different places,” said Luciana Rinaudi Marron, a co-investigator at Colgate-Palmolive for the Oral Biofilms in Space study.
“It really helps eliminate sources of error,” she said.
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Dr. Joseph D. Lim is the former Associate Dean of the College of Dentistry, University of the East; former Dean, College of Dentistry, National University; Past President and Honorary Fellow of the Asian Oral Implant Academy; Honorary Fellow of the Japan College of Oral Implantologists; and Honorary Life Member of the Thai Association of Dental Implantology. For questions on dental health, e-mail jdlim2008@gmail.com or text 0917-8591515./PN
