Very curious as I was doing some toothpaste shopping. I’ve recently started having sensitive teeth and would like to know if it works and how. Thank you
In: Biology
The nerve cells in our teeth transmit pain signals *electrochemically*.
Normally, when there’s no pain, the nerve cells maintain a slight negative voltage potential (-70 mV) between the inside of cell vs. the outside of the cell. They do so by regulating the flow of Potassium (K+) and Sodium (Na+) ions.
When nerve cells want to signal “pain”, they let excess the Potassium ions (K+) inside the cells to flow out (and conversely, let excess Na+ ions outside the cells to flow in). This “de-polarizes” the nerve cell and we feel “ouch!”
Sensitive-teeth toothpaste basically work by flooding the outside of the nerves with K+ ions, from its active ingredient Potassium Nitrate.
This stops the “pain signaling” from working. The abundance of K+ ions outside the nerve cells stops the K+ ions inside the cells from flowing out. So the nerve cells can’t “de-polarize” and the “pain signal” can’t be transmitted. No signal, no pain.
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