Researchers around the world are working to replace conventional dental procedures with regenerative techniques that could one day allow patients to grow back damaged or missing teeth, the BBC reported.
The prospect has generated unusual demand. Hannele Ruohola-Baker, associate director of the University of Washington Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, told the BBC she receives emails almost daily from people asking to take part in experimental tooth-regrowth trials.
Tooth loss is more consequential than many realize. Beyond affecting speech, eating, and social confidence, gum disease bacteria have been linked to heart disease, respiratory infections, and Alzheimer's disease. Tooth loss itself is associated with greater illness and earlier mortality.
Current fixes — fillings, implants, artificial crowns — are temporary and imperfect. Fillings last between five and twenty years and often require repeated replacement. Implants lack the nerves that allow natural biting sensation and can attract bacteria that damage surrounding teeth.
Ruohola-Baker's team has developed a tooth organoid from stem cells coaxed into becoming enamel- and dentine-producing cells. In the near term, she envisions enamel proteins being painted onto cracked teeth or used in fillings. Her longer-term goal is embedding the engineered cells directly into a patient's mouth and allowing the body to finish the job.
At Tufts School of Dental Medicine, Pamela Yelick grew tooth-like structures in minipigs using a combination of human and pig tooth cells on a bioengineered scaffold — a proof of concept that drew widespread interest, the BBC noted. Ana Angelova Volponi of King's College London is pursuing a similar approach, engineering biomaterials to guide cells into a structured, functional replacement tooth.
Researchers caution that human applications remain years away. Trials in non-human primates must come first, and the environments needed to support tooth development in a living jaw are still being refined.
"It's not very clear, but it's hopeful," Volponi told the BBC.
