Dentists 'fill in gaps' with breakthrough lab grown teeth
The future of dentistry is looking bright and pearly-white!
Going to the dentist can be a terrifying experience, but it is necessary to ensure the health of the only set of teeth you have.
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Unlike many other species — sharks come to mind — humans develop only one set of adult teeth.
However, scientists are working hard to change that.
A group of scientists researching regenerative dentistry has achieved what was once thought to be impossible.
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The King's College London scientists have grown a tooth in a lab.
While this is an amazing step forward for dentistry, it is still far from embedding itself in human mouths.
This idea of replacing the tooth in a biological way by regrowing it, drew me to London and to King's. By growing a tooth in a dish, we are really filling in the gaps of knowledge.
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There are a variety of ways one can obtain the perfect smile, from braces to implants.
The latter can cause serious problems for the patient and the dentist alike.
Implants require invasive surgery and good combination of implants and alveolar bone. Lab-grown teeth would naturally regenerate, integrating into the jaw as real teeth. They would be stronger, longer lasting, and free from rejection risks, offering a more durable and biologically compatible solution than fillings or implants.
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The science behind this discovery involves a special type of material that enables cells to communicate with each other.
This effectively means that one cell can tell another to start becoming a tooth cell. It mimics the environment for growing teeth.
The next step is to figure out how to get them from the lab and into a patient's mouth.
We have different ideas to put the teeth inside the mouth. We could transplant the young tooth cells at the location of the missing tooth and let them grow inside mouth. Alternatively, we could create the whole tooth in the lab before placing it in the patient's mouth.
According to the scientists, this will take a few more years.
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