Researchers from both the 'Craniofacial and Skeletal Diseases Branch at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research' and the 'University of Southern California', have begun working on the complete regeneration of a tooth. Loosing adult teeth once meant, gaining false teeth, but with the genetic advances of today, that could all be over soon. Songtao Shi from the University of Southern California describes building teeth from scratch as something less complicated then rebuilding organs "you have to create smart tissue (nerves), strong tissue (ligaments) and soft tissue (pulp), you've got to build enamel -- by far the hardest structural element in the body".
Researchers discovered the possibility while studying wisdom teeth, the stem cells available in wisdom teeth (and baby teeth) are the exact type of cells required for new tooth development. Rejection from the body to the tooth is highly unlikely due to the fact that the body will not reject its own cells. Though growing the tooth will be hard, researchers are identifying growing the tooth root to be the hardest part to conquer. “Even dentists say, 'Give me a root and I can put a crown on it.' "”
It is early days not and it is not predicted that any time soon, there will be readily available facilities to access tooth regeneration, but researchers are predicting that within the next 5-10 years false teeth will hopefully be a thing of the past
Reference
Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401941_pf.html
By Joel Garreau
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 4, 2009.
Image: http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v202/n2/images/bdj.2007.56-i1.jpg
