Can You Reverse a Cavity? What the Clinical Guidelines Actually Say

Your dentist pointed at a screen, said something about a spot they want to "keep an eye on," and sent you home without doing anything. Or you ran your tongue over a rough patch on a molar and felt your stomach drop. Either way you ended up here, typing some version of the same question: is it too late, or can I still fix this myself?

The honest answer is that it depends entirely on one thing, and it is not how much it hurts or how dark it looks. It depends on whether the surface has broken.

If the enamel surface is still intact — a white or brown spot where mineral has leached out from underneath, but no hole — then yes, that lesion can remineralize, and the American Dental Association's own clinical practice guideline says so in those terms: non-cavitated lesions "have the potential to reverse by means of chemical interventions." If the surface has collapsed into an actual cavity, no toothpaste, oil, gum, supplement or diet on earth will grow that structure back. It needs a dentist.

Most articles on this topic either terrify you or sell you a miracle. This one is going to tell you exactly which situation you are in, what the official guidelines actually recommend, what your dentist can do short of drilling, and what genuinely helps during the window when the window is still open. NanoChew is built for that window — not as a cavity treatment, but as daily mineral support in the hours when your teeth are losing ground.

What's in this guide

• The one distinction that decides everything
• The staging table: what's reversible and what isn't
• How a cavity actually forms, step by step
• What "we'll watch it" really means
• What the ADA guideline actually recommends
• What your dentist can do short of drilling
• Root cavities: a different problem
• What you can do at home
• Why it keeps happening to you
• How you'll know if it's working
• What happens if you ignore a real cavity
• The cost reality nobody mentions
• Where remineralizing gum fits
• The research on nano-hydroxyapatite
• What's in NanoChew, and why
• A daily routine that protects the window
• See a dentist now if…
• Frequently asked questions
• Sources

The one distinction that decides everything

Dentistry does not really use the word "cavity" the way patients do. Clinically, tooth decay is a continuous disease process called caries, and what matters is how far along it has gone.

A non-cavitated lesion is early decay where acid has pulled mineral out from beneath the enamel surface, but the surface itself is still structurally intact. It shows up as a chalky white spot, sometimes brown if it has been there a while and picked up stain. The porosity is subsurface. The roof is still on.

A cavitated lesion is what happens when that porous subsurface layer can no longer support the surface above it and the surface collapses. Now there is a physical hole, and the hole is a sheltered harbour for bacteria that no brush can reach.

Why this single distinction decides your options:

• Non-cavitated: mineral can diffuse back in and reinforce the weakened structure. The architecture is still there to rebuild on. This is genuinely reversible, and the official guidelines treat it that way.
• Cavitated: the structure is gone. Enamel is about 96% mineral with no living cells inside it — it cannot lay down new tissue the way bone or skin can. A cavitated lesion can sometimes be arrested, meaning stopped from getting worse, but the hole stays a hole.

That is the whole answer to "can you reverse a cavity," and everything else in this article is detail hanging off it.

The staging table: what's reversible and what isn't

Dentists use staging systems to classify exactly where a lesion sits. The most common research framework is ICDAS, the International Caries Detection and Assessment System, which scores lesions 0 to 6.

Read stage 3 carefully, because it is where most of the confusion lives. It is the transition zone — enamel just starting to break down — and it is genuinely ambiguous. It cannot be judged by looking in a bathroom mirror. It takes gentle probing for surface hardness and often a radiograph. This is the single biggest reason "can I reverse it myself" has no answer without an exam: a stage 2 and a stage 3 can look identical to you and have completely different outcomes.

How a cavity actually forms, step by step

Understanding the sequence tells you exactly where you can intervene.

1. Acid episodes repeat. Plaque bacteria ferment sugars into acid, and acidic food and drink add their own. Each time, mouth pH drops below about 5.5, the point where enamel begins losing mineral.
2. Mineral leaves from below the surface. Acid diffuses through the enamel's microscopic pores and dissolves mineral underneath, while the outer layer stays comparatively intact. This subsurface mineral loss is what shows up as a white spot — you are seeing light scatter off a porous layer under a thin shell.
3. Porosity increases. With continued acid exposure, the subsurface cavity grows and surface porosity rises. Microcavities begin.
4. The surface collapses. The weakened shell can no longer support itself and breaks. Now it is a cavity, and bacteria have a shelter.
5. Decay moves into dentine. Mineral loss and bacterial invasion continue into the softer tissue beneath. The tooth responds by laying down tertiary dentine to protect the pulp.

Everything up to and including step 2 is reversible territory. Step 3 is contested. Steps 4 and 5 are not reversible, only treatable.

Notice what drives every step: the frequency of acid episodes, not the total quantity of sugar. Six separate sweets across a day does far more damage than six eaten at once, because each one restarts the acid clock. The same logic applies to drinks nursed over hours — we covered that in detail in coffee, acidic drinks and your enamel.

What "we'll watch it" really means

When a dentist says they will monitor a spot rather than treat it, they are telling you something specific and quite hopeful: this lesion is not cavitated, so drilling would remove healthy tooth structure for no reason. They are giving the lesion a chance to go the other way.

That is modern practice, not negligence. The ADA explicitly describes a shift away from "drill and fill" toward prevention and arrest, and its position is that caries progression, arrest or reversal depends on "a balance between protective and pathogenic factors." A watched lesion is a coin that has not landed yet, and your habits are the thumb on the scale.

How much time do you have? Research summarised in the clinical literature estimates that enamel lesions remain radiographically visible for around three to four years on average, and notes that they can also regress. So this is usually not a this-week emergency. But "a few years" is the average time a lesion stays detectable, not a safe window to ignore — and the lesion is reacting to your habits the entire time.

The practical move after a "we'll watch it": do not wait passively until the next appointment. A watched lesion with changed habits behind it and a watched lesion with nothing changed are two different coins.

What the ADA guideline actually recommends

This is the part most articles on this topic skip, and it is the most useful thing here. The American Dental Association published an evidence-based clinical practice guideline on nonrestorative treatments for carious lesions — Slayton and colleagues, JADA 2018 — which grades specific interventions by lesion type and evidence strength. Here is what it says, accurately.

Three things in that table are worth pulling out:

• The single strongest recommendation for early decay is a sealant — not a toothpaste, not a rinse, not a supplement. If you have a non-cavitated lesion on a chewing surface, sealing it is the best-evidenced thing available and it is a quick, painless, drill-free appointment. Almost nobody writing about reversing cavities mentions this, which is a strange omission given it is the one strong recommendation in the guideline.
• The guideline suggests against 10% CPP-ACP (the casein phosphopeptide–amorphous calcium phosphate in products like MI Paste) when fluoride, sealants or resin infiltration are available. That is worth knowing, because CPP-ACP is heavily marketed for exactly this purpose.
• The guideline's language on reversibility is explicit. Non-cavitated lesions "have the potential to reverse by means of chemical interventions." Cavitated lesions are less likely to arrest or reverse without intervention. That is the official position, not a wellness claim.

What your dentist can do short of drilling

If the thing keeping you out of the chair is the assumption that a visit means a drill, this section is for you. There is a whole middle ground.

How well does SDF actually work? Gao and colleagues pooled eight trials of 38% SDF on primary teeth in a 2016 systematic review in JDR Clinical & Translational Research and found an overall caries arrest rate of 81% (95% CI 68–89%). Arrest rates declined with follow-up length — 86% at six months, 81% at twelve, 78% at eighteen, 65% at twenty-four. In one 36-month trial, 85% of lesions were arrested with SDF versus 62% with no treatment.

Those are real numbers for a treatment that involves no drill. The catch is the black stain, which is permanent and is why SDF is used more on children's back teeth and on patients who cannot tolerate conventional treatment than on a visible front tooth.

Root cavities: a different problem

Almost no consumer article on reversing cavities covers root decay, which is a problem, because it is extremely common in adults over fifty and it behaves differently.

When gums recede, the root surface becomes exposed. Root surface is cementum and dentine, not enamel, and it is softer and more vulnerable. Critically, its critical pH is around 6.7 rather than enamel's 5.5 — meaning a drink that is entirely safe for your enamel can still be dissolving an exposed root. Coffee at pH 5.11 is below the enamel threshold. Even coffee with milk at pH 6.20 is below the root threshold.

This is why the ADA guideline gives root surfaces their own recommendation — 5,000 ppm fluoride toothpaste or gel at least once daily — and why people with recession often find themselves getting cavities in their sixties after decades without one. If you have recession, gum surgery history, or sensitivity along the gumline, you are in this category and you need to be more careful about acid frequency than someone with intact gums, not less.

What you can do at home

For a non-cavitated lesion, the home side of this is not complicated, but it is unforgiving about consistency. Five things, in order of impact:

1. Cut acid and sugar frequency, not just quantity. This is the highest-leverage change and the one people get wrong. Stop grazing and stop sipping. Confine sweets and acidic drinks to mealtimes, where saliva is already flowing and the damage is consolidated into one episode instead of six.
2. Control the plaque on that specific spot. Lesions sit where plaque sits undisturbed. Brush twice daily, floss or use interdental brushes for the spaces between teeth, and ask your hygienist to point out exactly where you are missing. A lesion is a map of your blind spot.
3. Supply mineral, consistently. Remineralization needs calcium and phosphate present when pH recovers. A hydroxyapatite or fluoride toothpaste twice a day, and — this is the part most people's routines have no answer for — something that supplies mineral in the hours after eating.
4. Support saliva. Saliva is the delivery system for all of the above. Drink water, and chew sugar-free gum. The ADA's caries management guidance tells patients directly to "chew sugar-free gum with xylitol," noting that xylitol promotes salivary flow and remineralization and cannot be metabolized by cavity-causing bacteria.
5. Don't brush straight after anything acidic. Softened enamel abrades. Wait about an hour. Rinse with water and chew gum in the meantime.

What does not work, despite what you may have read: oil pulling will not remineralize a lesion, no supplement regrows enamel, charcoal powders are abrasive rather than remineralizing, and no diet — however clean — rebuilds a collapsed surface.

Notice that steps 3 and 4 both point at the same gap: the hours after meals, when your toothpaste is in the bathroom and your enamel is losing mineral. That is precisely what NanoChew was formulated to cover.

Why it keeps happening to you

If you brush and floss and still get lesions, something else is driving it, and finding it matters more than brushing harder. The usual suspects:

• Dry mouth. The biggest one and the most overlooked. Less saliva means less rinsing, less buffering and less mineral delivery. More than 500 medications list dry mouth as a side effect, and one primary-care study found 43.6% of patients reported it, rising to 71.2% among those on five or more medications. Details in the best gum for dry mouth.
• GLP-1 medications. Semaglutide and tirzepatide are associated with oral dryness, and reflux or vomiting adds stomach acid. See "Ozempic teeth" and GLP-1 dry mouth.
• Acid reflux. Stomach acid is far more aggressive than anything you eat, and it often happens overnight when saliva flow is at its lowest.
• Sipping and grazing. The frequency problem again. A coffee nursed for two hours is a two-hour acid exposure.
• Gum recession. Exposed root surface with its higher critical pH, as above.
• Orthodontic appliances. Brackets and aligners create plaque traps and sheltered surfaces.
• Deep pits and fissures. Some people's molar anatomy simply holds plaque in places a brush bristle cannot enter. This is what sealants exist for.

Bring whichever of these applies to your dentist. It changes their risk assessment and it changes what they recommend — and they can only account for what they know.

How you'll know if it's working

Here is a detail from the ADA guideline that will save you from a common mistake: colour alone is not an acceptable sign that a lesion has arrested. The guideline directs clinicians to judge by hardness on gentle probing, or by radiographic change.

That matters for you in two directions. A white spot that stays white can still have arrested and hardened — the mineral went back in, but the optical scattering remains, so it looks the same. And a spot that darkens to brown is often a sign of an arrested, hardened lesion that has taken up stain over time, not of worsening decay. Both of these mislead people constantly.

So you cannot evaluate this in a mirror. What you can do:

• Ask your dentist to note the lesion's location and stage in your chart so there is a baseline to compare against.
• Ask them at the next visit whether it feels harder on probing and whether the radiograph has changed.
• Ask whether your recall interval should be shorter than six months while a lesion is being watched.
• Track your habits, since those are the variable you control and the thing you can honestly assess.

Expect this to be measured in months, not days. Remineralization is a slow diffusion process, which is exactly why the daily consistency matters more than any single product.

What happens if you ignore a real cavity

Not to frighten you, but because the honest picture is the one that helps you decide.

Decay does not stall out on its own once the surface is broken. It progresses through enamel into dentine, where it moves faster because dentine is softer. The tooth defends itself by laying down tertiary dentine, but if decay reaches the pulp you move from a filling to root canal treatment or extraction. Beyond that, infection can produce apical periodontitis and abscess, and in uncommon cases spread further as cellulitis or osteomyelitis.

The practical version: a lesion caught non-cavitated may cost you nothing but better habits. The same tooth a year or two later may cost a filling. Later still, a crown or a root canal. The intervention gets larger, more expensive and less pleasant at every stage, and no stage ever gets cheaper by waiting.

The cost reality nobody mentions

Cost is frequently the real reason people search for a way to fix this at home, so let's name it directly rather than pretend the question is purely clinical.

The cheapest possible outcome is a lesion that never cavitates. That costs you an exam, better habits, possibly a sealant, and a daily routine. Every step after that is a procedure, and procedures escalate: a filling, then a crown, then root canal treatment, then an implant or bridge. Prices vary enormously by region and coverage, but the ordering never changes, and the gap between "watched lesion" and "root canal" is not a small one.

Which is the actual financial argument for a daily routine. Three pieces of NanoChew a day at the subscription price of about $0.45 each works out to roughly $41 a month. That is less than most people spend on coffee, and far less than a single filling. It is also replacing gum many people already buy, which makes the real marginal cost of the habit close to zero.

Where remineralizing gum fits

Let's be precise about this, because precision is what makes it worth trusting.

A remineralizing gum is not a cavity treatment. It will not reverse a cavitated lesion, it does not replace an exam, and nothing you chew substitutes for a dentist looking at the tooth. Anyone selling you otherwise is lying.

What it does is address the single biggest structural gap in a normal routine. Work out the arithmetic: you brush two minutes, twice a day. That is four minutes of active protection out of 1,440. Meanwhile every meal, coffee and snack drops your mouth below pH 5.5 for roughly 20 to 60 minutes. Five acid episodes a day is well over two hours of active mineral loss — all of it happening while your toothpaste sits in a tube.

Two mechanisms, one habit. Chewing raises saliva flow to roughly 10 to 12 times resting rate, which is why the ADA credits 20 minutes of sugar-free gum after meals with helping prevent tooth decay — faster acid clearance, faster buffering back above the threshold. And the nano-hydroxyapatite supplies the mineral that remineralization actually consumes, rather than leaving your saliva to find it alone.

That second half is what separates a remineralizing gum from ordinary sugar-free gum. Regular gum accelerates recovery using whatever calcium and phosphate your saliva happens to carry. If you have dry mouth — the most common hidden driver of repeat lesions — that is precisely the resource you are short of. Comparison in full in remineralizing gum vs regular gum.

The research on nano-hydroxyapatite

Hydroxyapatite is the mineral enamel is built from — about 96% of enamel by weight. Nano-hydroxyapatite is the same material milled fine enough to settle into microscopic surface defects. Japan recognized it as an anti-cavity agent in 1993, and the clinical evidence has grown considerably.

The studies most relevant to early lesions specifically:

• Remineralizing early lesions. Najibfard and colleagues at UT Health San Antonio tested 5% and 10% nano-hydroxyapatite against a 1,100 ppm fluoride toothpaste in 30 adults and found significant remineralization of early enamel lesions with both concentrations. That is this article's subject matter, measured directly.
• Caries prevention. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis in the Journal of Dentistry by Pawinska and colleagues concluded that "more studies now show that hydroxyapatite is effective as an anti-caries active ingredient in the absence of fluoride." Early trials reported 35–56% caries reduction in children using 5% hydroxyapatite toothpaste versus placebo.
• White spot lesions. The same meta-analysis reported hydroxyapatite was more effective than fluoride for remineralizing white spot lesions after orthodontic treatment — notable, since white spots are the archetypal reversible lesion.
• Against fluoride. A 2026 systematic review in Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dentistry found three trials where hydroxyapatite was non-inferior to fluoride toothpaste — children over a year, orthodontic adolescents over six months, adults over 18 months — all rated low risk of bias under Cochrane RoB 2. Full comparison in hydroxyapatite vs fluoride.
• In gum form. Porciani and Grandini ran a double-blind trial of 107 people using a hydroxyapatite chewing gum and found significant sensitivity reduction — evidence the ingredient's benefit survives the format.
• Xylitol. A 2025 review in BMC Oral Health found xylitol gum lowered Streptococcus mutans, the primary cavity-associated bacterium, in 12 of 14 studies examined.
• Safety. The EU's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety, in its 2025 opinion, considered nano-hydroxyapatite safe up to 29.5% in toothpaste and 10% in mouthwash, finding no mutagenic, cytotoxic or inflammatory effects in the particles assessed. See is nano-hydroxyapatite safe?

One honest note on scope: these trials tested toothpastes and gums on lesion remineralization and caries incidence. None of them tested whether a chewing gum reverses an established cavity, and we are not claiming that. The claim is narrower and better supported — hydroxyapatite supplies enamel mineral, and supplying it after meals addresses a real gap.

What's in NanoChew, and why

NanoChew is a dentist-formulated nano-hydroxyapatite chewing gum with over 500 five-star reviews, built for the window between meals and brushing.

Why it suits someone with a watched lesion:

• Consistency is the whole game, and this is easy to be consistent with. Remineralization is slow diffusion over months. A routine you keep beats a better routine you abandon.
• It covers the hours nothing else does. After breakfast, after lunch, after dinner — the three windows where acid actually happens.
• It works alongside whatever your dentist recommends. Sealant, varnish, prescription toothpaste, fluoride or hydroxyapatite paste — none of it conflicts. This is additive.
• Transparent formula. Every ingredient listed, with a reason for being there.
• Best price in the category. $29.99 for 60 pieces is $0.50 each, or $0.45 on Subscribe & Save with 10% off — among the lowest per-piece costs of the nano-hydroxyapatite gums in our comparison. A pouch runs 20 to 30 days.
• Flavour and texture that last the window. A gum that falls apart at minute six never makes it to twenty.

The window is open. Use it. Shop NanoChew — $29.99 for 60 pieces, 10% off on Subscribe & Save →

A daily routine that protects the window

For more on dose and timing, see how much remineralizing gum per day, and for the broader picture, how to remineralize teeth.

See a dentist now if…

None of what follows is a "watch it" situation. Book an appointment:

• You can feel a hole, a soft spot or a catch with your tongue or a fingernail. If there is a physical defect, the reversible window has closed on that tooth.
• Pain that lingers after cold or sweet, rather than passing in a second or two.
• Any spontaneous or throbbing pain, pain that wakes you, or pain on biting.
• Swelling in the gum or face, a bad taste, or a bump near the tooth. That is urgent.
• A dark spot that has visibly grown since you last looked.
• Food consistently packing into one spot.
• It has been over a year since an exam and you are reading this because you are worried. You cannot stage your own lesion, and the whole value of early detection is that it is early.

And one thing worth saying plainly: if what is keeping you out of the chair is fear of the drill, tell the practice that when you book. The entire middle ground in this article — sealants, varnish, SDF, resin infiltration — exists precisely so that early decay does not have to mean drilling.

Frequently asked questions

Can you reverse a cavity?

If the enamel surface is still intact — a white or brown spot with no hole — yes. The ADA's 2018 clinical practice guideline states non-cavitated lesions "have the potential to reverse by means of chemical interventions." Once the surface has broken into an actual cavity, no. Enamel has no living cells and cannot regrow lost structure, so a cavitated lesion needs a filling or another professional treatment. A dentist has to tell you which one you have.

Can a cavity heal itself without a filling?

A true cavitated cavity, no. Early decay before cavitation, yes — and that is what most people who ask this question actually have, especially if a dentist said they'd "watch it." The treatment is consistent: less frequent acid, better plaque control on that spot, and steady mineral supply. Chewing NanoChew after meals covers the part of that your toothpaste can't reach.

How do I know if my cavity is early enough to reverse?

You can't tell at home, and this is not false modesty — an ICDAS stage 2 lesion and a stage 3 lesion can look identical to you and have opposite prognoses. The distinction takes gentle probing for surface hardness and usually a radiograph. If a dentist has told you they're monitoring a spot, that's your answer: it's not cavitated, and you're in the window.

How long does it take to remineralize a cavity?

Months, not days, and it depends on the lesion and your habits. Remineralization is a slow diffusion process. For context, enamel lesions have been estimated to remain radiographically visible for around three to four years on average, while also being capable of regressing. That's why daily consistency beats any single product, and why the next check-up is the real measurement.

Is there a way to fix a cavity without drilling?

Often, yes, and it's underused. The ADA guideline's strongest recommendation for early occlusal lesions is a sealant, with or without fluoride varnish — no drilling. For cavitated lesions, silver diamine fluoride arrested 81% of cavities in primary teeth across a pooled analysis of eight trials; it's painted on with no drill and no anaesthetic, but it stains the spot permanently black and doesn't fill the hole. Resin infiltration can reinforce and improve the look of non-cavitated white spots. Ask your dentist which applies.

What does it mean when a dentist says they'll "watch" a spot?

It means the lesion isn't cavitated, so drilling would remove healthy tooth for no reason — they're giving it a chance to go the other way. It's modern practice, not neglect. But treat it as an instruction, not a dismissal: a watched lesion with changed habits behind it and one with nothing changed have very different outcomes.

My white spot isn't going away. Is it getting worse?

Not necessarily, and this trips up almost everyone. The ADA guideline says colour alone is not an acceptable sign of arrest — clinicians judge by hardness on gentle probing or radiographic change. A spot can fully harden and still look white, because the optical scattering remains. And a spot that darkens to brown is often an arrested, hardened lesion that has picked up stain. Ask whether it feels harder, not whether it looks better.

Does oil pulling or a special diet reverse cavities?

No. Oil pulling doesn't remineralize lesions, no supplement regrows enamel, and charcoal powders are abrasive rather than remineralizing. Diet matters enormously, but through the mechanism in this article — reducing how often your mouth goes acidic — not by rebuilding tooth structure. No diet closes a collapsed surface.

Does remineralizing gum reverse cavities?

No, and we won't claim it does. NanoChew is not a cavity treatment and doesn't replace a dental exam. What it does is supply enamel mineral and raise saliva flow during the 20 to 60 minutes after eating, when your teeth are actively losing mineral and your toothpaste is in the bathroom. For a non-cavitated lesion, that window is where the outcome gets decided.

Why does the ADA recommend chewing gum?

Because of saliva. Chewing raises saliva flow to roughly 10 to 12 times resting rate, which clears acid faster and buffers your mouth back above the demineralization threshold. The ADA credits 20 minutes of sugar-free gum after meals with helping prevent tooth decay, and its caries management guidance tells patients to "chew sugar-free gum with xylitol," noting xylitol promotes salivary flow and remineralization and can't be metabolized by cavity bacteria.

Is a remineralizing gum better than ordinary sugar-free gum for this?

For someone trying to remineralize a lesion, yes, and the reason is specific. Both raise saliva flow. But ordinary gum then relies entirely on your own saliva's calcium and phosphate to do the rebuilding — and if you have dry mouth, which is the most common hidden driver of repeat lesions, that's exactly the resource you're short of. A remineralizing gum brings the mineral with it.

I keep getting cavities even though I brush and floss. Why?

Something else is driving it, and finding it matters more than brushing harder. The most common culprits are dry mouth (over 500 medications cause it), acid reflux, sipping or grazing through the day, gum recession exposing root surfaces, orthodontic appliances, and deep molar grooves that a bristle simply can't enter. Bring the relevant one to your dentist — it changes their risk assessment and what they recommend.

Can cavities on tooth roots be reversed?

Root surfaces are a harder problem. They're cementum and dentine rather than enamel, they're softer, and their critical pH is around 6.7 versus enamel's 5.5 — so drinks that are safe for your enamel can still be dissolving an exposed root. The ADA guideline gives them their own recommendation: 5,000 ppm fluoride toothpaste or gel at least once daily. If you have recession, you need to be more careful about acid frequency, not less.

Where can I buy NanoChew?

At nanochewgum.com, where Subscribe & Save takes 10% off every pouch and brings it to about $0.45 a piece, and on Amazon. A 60-piece pouch is $29.99. The site is the better price per piece.

Sources

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2. American Dental Association. Oral Health Topics: Caries Risk Assessment and Management. ada.org
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16. Procter & Gamble DentalCare continuing education. Reduced demineralization and enhanced remineralization: critical pH of hydroxyapatite and fluorapatite. DentalCare.com

This article is for general information only and is not medical or dental advice, and it is not a substitute for examination and diagnosis by a licensed dentist. It has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, and NanoChew is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease — it is not a treatment for tooth decay. Only a dentist can determine whether a lesion is cavitated and what treatment it needs. Research findings described here refer to the specific products and formulations tested in those studies. If you have tooth pain, swelling, a visible hole or a spot that is changing, see a dentist promptly.