Have you ever thought about growing a replacement tooth?Do you think it is possible to do from your own cells? Researchers say we might be a step closer.
Taking your stem cells and growing more, can produce a small tooth. It is too early to use for people because the tooth is immature and looks just like embryo of a real small tooth. After the technique is taking place, this embryo could be place in the mouth to get its needed amount of blood supply, and they start to grow and gradually form a complete tooth.
Human Teeth in Mice
Researchers from Dental Institute at King’s College tried to grow a human tooth by combining the human cells with mice’ cells that are responsible for growing teeth. So at the end they got hybrid human/mouse teeth with roots.
It would be much better if we could grow a real teeth with the roots to replace old ones. Nowadays, if you have a damaged or missing tooth, you will be needing fixed or removable dental implants, which are also really expensive and they not going to be there forever. Implants will need to be repaired with time.
Roots
Even though, implants work really well, they can wear down with time. It might happen because of the impact of chewing. This is not that big deal and almost not a problem with natural teeth because they have soft tissue at the root which is acting as a shock absorber.
Now, researchers are step closer to bring prospect of bioengineered teeth that will feel like natural and that will have their own root system. All they need to do is find enough of human cells to make this new technique a much better alternatives to dental implants.
Don’t forget to brush and floss your teeth so you won’t have to replace them 🙂
