Methods and compositions for treating dental structures

Abstract

Novel methods and dental compositions for treating dental structures, such as teeth and subgingival structures, are disclosed. Uniquely, the dental compositions contain metal complexes which are characterized as having an unique aqueous proton induced dissociation property represented by a sigmoidally-shaped curve on a cartesian coordinate plot of the negative log of the metal ion concentration versus the negative log of the hydrogen ion concentration. This unique dissociation property enables the metal complexes to release therapeutic metal ions in the oral cavity for forming metal coordination complexes or salts within the dental structures. The formation of such complexes or salts within the dental structures is particularly effective and highly resistant to enzymatic degradation associated with microbial activity. Also, the metal ions of this invention are highly effective in inactivating the enzymes secreted by microbes in the oral cavity to further attenuate the disintegration process. The metal complexes of the new and vastly improved dental compositions advantageously are highly soluble yet readily dissociable at pH ranges normally encountered in the human mouth. As the active ingredient, the dental compositions contain a monometal complex of a multivalent heavy metal ion and a polyfunctional organic ligand in a ratio of about 1:1. An example of a dental composition employed is disodium monocopper(II) citrate in an amount of about 4 mg./ml., as copper, in a liquid vehicle having a pH of about 7.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.