To a small extent, our teeth can bed with the help remineralise of saliva, fluoride toothpaste and drinking water additives. But once there's a visible cavity on the tooth, it needs to be treated by a dentist - which usually means drilling, and packing the hole with a dental filling. To develop their new treatment, the team turned to one of the proteins produced by ameloblasts. 

It is produced by a type of cell called an ameloblast. These secrete the proteins that form enamel while the tooth is still in the gum. Unfortunately, once the process of forming tooth enamel is complete and the tooth has emerged, our ameloblasts die off. But we continue to lose enamel throughout...