How you could regrow your own teeth instead of having dentures

Yahoo

17-02-2025

Teeth grown in a lab could soon end the need for implants and dentures, experts believe.
Cells from wisdom teeth, combined with pig teeth cells, can be cultivated in a lab and implanted to fill a gap left by a lost tooth, a study has shown.
These lab-grown teeth could be used to replace any type of tooth within 20 years, according to Prof Pamela Yelick, a professor of orthodontics at Tufts University in Boston.
'I 100 per cent think regenerating human teeth can happen,' Prof Yelick told reporters at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual conference.
'I believe we can do this in my lifetime and I'm in my mid-60s.
'There are so many advances happening in technology, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and dentistry, and they all feed off each other.'
In a recent study by Prof Yelick, published in the Stem Cells Translational Medicine journal, human-like teeth were grown in pigs in less than four months.
The experiments implanted small human-pig hybrid teeth into the jaw of a porcine study participant, where they completed their growth.
'The study presented here validates a potentially clinically relevant bioengineered tooth replacement therapy for eventual use in humans,' the authors write in the paper.
Half of Britons are missing at least 10 teeth by the age of 75, according to official data, and one in 10 adults have fillings, crowns or bridges that cause discomfort.
Prof Yelick said lab-grown teeth would feel more natural than implants because they keep the nerves and blood circulation.
She said: 'We use cells from wisdom teeth that need to be extracted, and then expand them in the lab to tens of millions of cells.
'Then we can put them onto biodegradable scaffolds and get them to form tooth tissue.
'Even after taking the cells out, freezing them, thawing them and putting them back together they still remember what to do and how to form little tiny teeth.'
The lab begins their growing process before the teeth then continue to grow into their full shape and size in the recipient's gum.
Prof Yelick has now founded a company to turn her scientific breakthroughs into a commercial reality.
Regendodent, the Boston-based company, has already developed one product, RegendoGEL, which is a naturally grown tooth pulp that can be implanted in a root canal.
Because it has not been cleared by the FDA, it is not yet commercially available in the United States.
This product is designed to make root canals last longer than their current lifespan because the standard cement that goes into the hollowed-out root is replaced with a natural tooth pulp.
That pulp is a combination of nerves and blood vessels that promotes continued root development.
Prof Yelick added: 'We're hoping we could make tooth roots that you could put a crown on that would fit properly with your bite.
'It might be resistant to caries or periodontitis so they could be therapeutic in addition to being functional. We're really thinking big.'