Anibal Diogenes ,D.D.S., Ph.D., is an endodontist, which is the branch of dentistry that deals with the innermost part of the tooth called pulp.
What’s pulp?
"It's actually a connective tissue inside of the tooth that has immunological, reparative functions," Diogenes said.
Turns out, teeth are a lot more interesting than most people give them credit for.
"What most in the population don't know is that teeth are one of the most densely innervated tissues with pain fibers," he said. "There are more nerves in a single tooth then you're going to find on your skin in the same area of the skin."
And those nerves don’t just cause pain without purpose.
"We think of these nerves as enemies. The nerves are there, they're firing, and they're just hurting me, but those nerves are also talking to the other cells. It's like a surveillance system, and they're trying to tell the tissue to repair itself," he said.
Diogenes is studying this communication in a condition called apical periodontitis to figure out how the nerves might send out that repair signal—without the pain. He says understanding that communication will have implications for our whole-body health.
"[Implications], such as responses to osteoporosis, to bone fractures. Also, myelitis, which is an infection of the bone," he said.
And even if it just made our experiences with apical periodontitis less painful, that would be big. Half of the world’s adults have the condition.
Science & Medicine is a collaboration between TPR and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, about how scientific discovery in San Antonio advances the way medicine is practiced everywhere.
