Eureka! A word never written without the requisite exclamation mark. Mostly because it’s uttered in jubilation; even when you’re just thinking it. A.A Milne’s grey, sardonic donkey Eeyore would possibly be the only exception; although it’s more than highly unlikely he would ever have thought it – other than sarcastically. As the archetypal outsider in the thistly corner of the Hundred Acre Wood, his ponderings consist mostly of why, wherefore and inasmuch-as-which; without any inkling whatsoever of “Eureka!” even when Winnie the Pooh found his tail for him – that Eeyore had not even noticed was missing. That donkey probably had gum disease, and to reverse periodontitis was not a script for kids.

Eeyore’s tragedy is that with all the thinking he does, it finds him no answers and gains him no happiness. What makes him so relatable and so loveable, is this profoundly conflicted existence he constructs for himself in the Gloomy Place on the other side of the stream.

We’ve all been there some time. Lead by a mesmerising map to that place of Rather Boggy and Sad. Chronic gum disease can certainly take you there. And its cartographer is more complex than not brushing your teeth; genetics, finances, diet, access to dental clinics and mental health also have a hand in it. Like Eeyore falling into the stream caught in an eddy and unable to get out, gum disease can have a very forlorn feeling of floating round and round in circles.

The available treatments for periodontal disease focus on slowing its progression; ironically mirrored in the processes that have remained reasonably static for decades. Scaling and root planing, pocket reduction surgery, gum and bone grafts are the mainstays – all invasive and expensive procedures. Laser-assisted new attachment procedure (LANAP) targets the regeneration of bone, ligament and gums in preference to re-sectioning, and it revolutionised periodontal therapy thirty years ago.

Guided tissue and regeneration treatment (GTR) sounds so sci-fi, but it was a therapeutic choice almost a decade before LANAP. Disease-causing bacteria is removed from below the gum line, and by placing a membrane between bone and soft tissue, healthy regrowth of both is stimulated. This is done so that slower growing bone fills the space rather than the more rapidly regenerating gum, because otherwise there’s no stability for the teeth undergoing this particular dental therapy.

Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) is another oral surgical procedure that again, has been used for decades. It involves withdrawing the patient’s blood and immediately placing it into a centrifuge. This speeds up the conversion of the blood protein fibrinogen to fibrin (a clotting component) while retaining the platelets. It’s a concentration that promotes a faster natural healing in the affected areas of the disease.

The most recent change in therapy for periodontal disease is currently under development. With a few years to go before it will be approved for use, its research results are astounding. Unlike all other approaches to chronic gum disease, this gel and oral strips target and block succinate – a natural receptor molecule that becomes elevated in periodontal patients. Disabling it counteracts the soft tissue inflammation and bone loss, and effectively shuts down the disease.

The gel and strips will allow home treatments, while a more concentrated version will be supplied only to dentists for professional application in a repair regimen. That’s certainly another Eureka! moment, and pure gold for patients and practitioners.

It’s worth mentioning here too (just for interest sake) that the whole Archimedes under-threat, gold-weight-in-the-crown bath story exclamation to which we’re all so familiar, is likely completely untrue.

Seems that the great ancient Greek mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and engineer Archimedes of Syracuse (287BCE-212BCE) never wrote of that specific incident himself; despite the detailed principles and laws of buoyancy he voluminously recorded. The first telling of his public bath brainstorm appears some 200 years later in the 1st century, written by Roman architect and military engineer, Vitruvius (c.70BCE-c.17BCE).

Vitruvius may well have gotten the Archimedes story wrong – despite being the revered and prolific author of the 10 books of De architectura that deals with every material and nuance of city planning and architecture. A long line of scientists – Galileo included – have found the entire volumetric method of the story attributed to Archimedes is good in theory, and fundamentally flawed.

Evidently, whether or not Archimedes ever did shout “Eureka!” historical and rational consensus has the possibility of that consigned to his earlier, formative buoyancy discovery, rather than streaking the streets of Syracuse screaming.

We do like a good story though; and one that combines money, menace, a crown, a flash of inspiration and a flashing dash will always endure and elbow truth right out of its way. So Eureka! to the apocrypha of Archimedes’ Eureka!

What does remain cause for that utterance of celebration, is the groundbreaking discovery by Flightpath Biosciences Inc. This clinical-stage life sciences company specialises in the treatment of infectious disease, and has garnered the participation of leading oral health research organisation, the ADA Forsyth Institute.

Since 2015, Flightpath Biosciences’ co-founder Kim Lewis PhD, Director of Northeastern University’s Antimicrobial Discovery Center, has sought to identify a selective compound against the particularly destructive spirochaete pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi. A number of species and strains of this bacteria spread to humans by infected ticks, are responsible for Lyme disease – a debilitating condition that can affect digestion, joints, nervous system, heart and brain. Recently, FP-100 (hygromycin A) was found to do that specific job that’s taken almost a decade to find; and impressively, it doesn’t harm healthy gut bacteria.

Even better, it was revealed that this narrow spectrum antibiotic also successfully eliminates Fusobacterium nucleatum. An opportunistic bacterium commonly found in the mouth and when left unchecked, leads to severe gum disease, dental pulp infection, oral cancer and their associated systemic diseases.

See? Don’t ever rethink the value of a six-monthly dental appointment.

FP-100’s multiple proof-of-concept studies in other disease areas means its brilliantly broad for a targeted micro-organism treatment. Endometriosis, infertility, pre-term and stillbirth too, will benefit from the findings. What it also changes in terms of the antibiotic treatment paradigm is its keeping of sensitive, favourable gut microbiome – and ergo, oral microbiota – intact. Incredible game-changers in the realm of human healing.

A landmark Collaboration Agreement with the ADA Forsyth Institute to specifically develop FP-100 for the treatment of periodontal disease was signed in 2023.

That FP-100 eliminates F. nucleatum from the mouth, reverses the destruction caused to the gums and completely stops the progression of the disease is irrefutable. The Institute’s senior leading scientist of the study, Alpdogan Kantarci, DDS, PhD has said, “This type of black-and-white data almost never happens.”

No grey areas there.

If there were, and that grey area happened to be Eeyore standing front feet well apart and head on one side, he’d say, “That Accounts for a Good Deal … It Explains Everything. No Wonder.”

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