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Growing Teeth with Stem Cell Technology
davidoff404 writes "Lost a tooth lately? Well, a natural cure may be at hand. The BBC is reporting on a grant awarded to researchers at King's College, London, which they say will allow them to develop a technique for growing natural replacement teeth. Using recently developed techniques, stem cells can be programmed to develop into teeth, and then inserted into the gap in a patient's jaw. According to the BBC, the research has already been successfully performed on mice, and clinical trials on humans should begin within two years."
This King's College sure sounds like a front for some true organ cloning, I bet they are running this tooth thing at a loss. Wake up Drucker here we come! Of course how will we tell the hicks apart?
Research on growing teeth? In England? THERE's a fucking surprise, mate.
Finally, a solution to the near-catastrophic lack of Rodent Teeth! I can sleep easy tonight!
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."
- Seneca
alabama and west virginia?
I understand why they're necessary, but come on, why do they have nerves in them? Fingernails and hair are necessary, and evolution seems to have gotten both of those correct... so why do teeth have nerves? And does this growing of new teeth include the nerves? I have had five root canals and stopped counting my cavities at 40 (I'm half English, that's why - the stereo-type is based in reality), so I am looking to get FAKE teeth (the kind that screw into the jaw - I already have one) and be rid of the miserable real ones I have. I sure as hell don't want them replaced with new real ones. That would just be excruciating.
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Note: This does not mean you can stop brushing your teeth, people! Flossing, okay, maybe, but continue to brush. Please...
No more brushing my teeth and all the Coke I can drink!
Take that, Mother, with all your dire predictions about my teeth rotting out.
Mandatory SCO joke:
Maybe they can use it to grow some teeth for their slowly withering lawsuits!
How long until goths get real fangs?
This is wonderful news, now I can grow teeth like Tom Cruise's.
Oh wait, this research was done in the UK.
Make that Austin Powers.
John.
Looks like some one has been reading A Gift From Earth.
Old men with baby teeth, that just freaks me out.
It would be the Brits to start doing this though.
"I'm not high, just stupid" --JY
Shinsherely,
Cohen the Barbarian
Reshipient of Oldesht Living Barbarian Award
It would be cool if in the future you could have some plasmid novelty joke gum that would alter the stem cell DNA and turn the tooth into a penis or ass. You've been Punk'd, ass mouth!
of all the things to grow are teeth. Why not something like hair. That's where the money is. Look at all the infomercials.
Evolution or ID?
Now it won't only be the cute kids singing:
"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.."
Telcos have alot of dark fibre in the States. Most people assume that's optical fibre...but it's actually moral fibre.
BRUSH YOUR TEETH (song by KOMPRESSOR)
Show a man some news, distract him for an hour. Show a man some mod points, distract him for the rest of his life.
teeth aren't made of the same stuff as hair and nails. teeth are bones, and all bones have blood vessels and nerves in them... unless you want flexible teeth of course...
Too bad Bush won't allow the U.S. to fund this fantastic, useful research because it clashes with his religious ideals. I can only hope that universities and companies within Europe keep moving forward.
submission says: According to the BBC, the research has already been successfully performed on mice, and clinical trials on humans should begin within two years.
However the story says: The company Odontis, set up by the college, hopes to develop its research for tests on humans within two years after successful research on mice.
It doesn't sound like they've actually grown MiceTeeth(tm) yet, unless I'm reading that terribly wrong.
I imagine that using this technique that they could grow a tooth anywhere, right? I got a joke in e-mail last week about vagina's with teeth - I could only get to sleep that night by dismissing it as an impossibility. Now what? I'm suffering some serious shrinkage here - tell me it isn't so... Snapping - be careful what you wish for.
Humor from a Genetically Molested Mind
The article doesn't seem to say whether or not these teeth can be grown without fetal stem cells. Expect protest if so.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
Since you have root canales than you know that the tooth "dies" when you remove the blood vessels. The tooth is a healthy living organ requiring nutrients. You can remove this but than the tooth starts turning black from the lack of nutrients (any real dentist please step in and fill the voids of knowledge). The nerves are there to let you know when something is wrong. Yeah I wish my legs didn't have nerves when I brook it but I need to know that something was wrong.
give my teeth new balls of stems..
i mean stem cells in balls...
ooops... balls of stem cells.
What do they need a grant for, can't they just stick all the teeth they grow under their pillows?
is my (geneticly engeneered,grown from stem cells, expensive as hell I'm sure) two front teeth :)
Crest Toothening Strips. More teeth in 2 weeks, guaranteed!
Wasn't there something about fish growing teeth on /. a while ago?
Wow, how is this possible with stem cells ..
..babies have no teeth.
I mean after all
Mod -1 troll, -1 flamebait.
Just a joke, move along.
It is my understanding that most of the differences in tooth health around the world are due to environmental variance. I grew up in a place where there was a lot of fluoride in the water, and the schools also had programs to provide additional fluoride. This has given me very hard tooth enamel. In the 30+ years of my life, I've only ever had one cavity filled. One would presume that they would grow the teeth in an environment that fosters teeth that are healthy.
When I want your opinion I will beat it out of you.
Correction: teeth are made of enamel, not bone. Enamel is much harder than bone (and in fact living bone tissue is rather flexible IIRC). Teeth have to made of harder stuff than bone in order to grind up some of the different types of foods that omnivores like humans eat.
not the teeth part, but the technology itself.
but the teeth market won't be the market that fuels this research. No, the market is the hair loss market. the same stem cell technology is being used to replace teeth can replace hair follicles.
in traditional hair restoration, hair is transplanted from point A on the bottom of the scalp, where the follicles for some reason don't fall out like they do on the crown. this works, but the hair has to be spread thin, because there's only X amount you can take, and it means there's going to be missing hair from the bottom.
what the cloned hair would do is allow an arbitrary thickness and density of placement, not limited by the donors thickness and supply at the base, since you can take a small amount from the base, clone them to the amount you want, and make a better graft.
i can't wait, being 24 and nearly bald. fight genetics with science.
Reason, free market capitalism, and individualism
I remember seeing an article on this identical process, about three years ago, that said the new treatment would be available to the public in about three years.
I guess in two years time I can look forward to it being only a year away.
Mice and rats don't have teeth. They have incisors which are teeth like but they continously grow. Imagine fingernail like teeth that wear down but since they always grow, they should always have teeth.
After watching the icehockey world championship this week I am sure there's a demand for them.
According to the BBC, the research has already been successfully performed on mice, and clinical trials on humans should begin within two years.
With all these advancements we keep performing on mice (mice with human breasts and gigantic ears. Mice that can control things with their mind and are cancer proof...Mice that produce sperm for monkeys,mice that glow in the dark, etc...), it's only a matter of time before we build a renegade breed of super-supergenius mice who become our leaders and take over the world.
It's just like marijuana legalization. The people missing the most teeth tend not to vote.
The CB App. What's your 20?
Honestly, I have a friend with full dentures who says she's never been happier in her life. No more pain or discomfort, and when they need work she simply sends them out.
I'd consider this step just the first phase though. What they need to figure out is how to inject a current root with cells that turn a tooth into a "baby" tooth that loosens and falls out on its own, and then is replaced. Sort of like the "Shark Model," only different.
KFG
How do the stem cells know when to *stop* growing the tooth? I mean, clearly there's something telling them when they're done but what happens if something goes wrong? What happens if you drop these things in someone's gum, and it starts growing a tooth, but the shutoff mechanism for the stem cells never activates.. so it just keeps growing.. and growing.. and growing...
LONDON, ENGLAND... A HUGE, WHITE MASS LOOMS OVER THE BUILDINGS ON THE HORIZON
WOMAN, FRIGHTENED AND DRAWING BACK: My God... what is it??
MAN, STANDING BACK DRAMATICALLY: It is... The Tooth.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Fuck root canal!
Would you prefer administrator canal?
Microsoft just trying to prove how painful the root account is.
Consider the disaster for one of the few growth industries in IT!
What shams will the spam industry sell if we can start growing things medically?!
Quit the statistics courses, guys... there is no future in getting around the Bayesian analysis, anymore... :-(
Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
I now have the opportunity to wear braces again. Another step forward for science AND fashion!
While the growing of teeth is certainly an interesting and useful application of this technology, I personally would like to see how they handle connecting the nerves in the new teeth to the roots in the host.
Depending on how it's handled, it could possibly be applied to a number of other useful medical advances, such as helping repair nerve damage, prosthetic limbs, and spinal cord injuries.
Aren't stem cells wonderful things?
The tooth is a healthy living organ requiring nutrients. You can remove this but than the tooth starts turning black
A more signficant issue is that a dead tooth (ie, post root canal) tends to become brittle over time, and much more likely to suddenly break when stressed.
Biblical argument against stem cell research
Excerpt:
This surprising question arises because of recent newspaper headlines, e.g. 'Senators use Bible for lessons on life in stem cell debate'.30 Gordon Smith, a Mormon Republican senator of Oregon, who normally opposes abortion, is reported as providing this amazing exegetical 'insight' on Genesis 2:7:
'After reading the passage, Smith said it described a "two-stage process" for creating humans: First, God formed man from the dust of the ground. Then, the verse says, God breathed into man's nostrils "the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
... advancements in the treatment of AIDS have in fact led to complacency about getting the disease. No, I'm not blaming the researchers, I'm blaming the idiot kids who think AIDS is cured. But the fact remains than when you make progress on a health problem, people are inclined to think the problem is "cured".
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can they grow hair with stem cells? If they can do that, now THAT would be a goldmine.. fake teeth dont look as fake as fake hair.
I just wonder how long it'll be until we'll be able to design our own dentata. I'm more than a bit curious as to the thought of having a nice set of fang implants, but at the same time, the fact that most designer teeth are just fancy dentures is kind of a let down. A nice set of fangs, along with a real bite, would be awesome, IMNSHO.
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
Keep Your natural teeth as long as you can.
I am missing my front 3 teeth. One got knocked out in a car accident and within 1 year the two next to it had become so loose they needed to be pulled. The implants are nice but they just don't feel the same. It is weird. They are also about 1200- 1500 a tooth. And insurance will not cover very much of it (unless you have some stellar insurance)
First they find that you can get stem cell from teeth Now you can get teeth from stem cells... Forget abou the chicken and egg tale, this one is way cooler! :)
I have lived 28 out of 29 years in New York (and one in California). I can tell you that it has nothing to do with environment and everything to do with genetics.
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Humans already have a first and second dentition, why not simply encourage a third with hormones or something? You'd have baby teeth, teenage teeth, and over-the-hill teeth. When your third set started coming in, it would officially be time to go buy that Corvette and get a blonde bimbo for the passenger seat.
On the subject of teeth: Dental care is good enough lately that people don't lose enough teeth to make room in the jaw for the rear molars, the "wisdom" teeth that come in later. It seems obvious to me, that we could tell in the early teens whether an individual's wisdom teeth will be in the way, and then simply prevent their growth with a squirt of botox. It would eliminate their costly and painful removal later.
Wouldn't it make more sense to grow the teeth IN the jaw? I mean it's not like you haven't done so many times in your life. Just start the tooth bud off and implant it such that the nerves and blood vessels all attach properly. A little orthodonture and you're good as new.
I thought somebody else was working on a way to stimulate the existing tooth buds in the jaw (you have extras) but I can't find a reference.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
Hard tooth enamel, but at the price of impure precious bodily fluids, comrade. What's more important: teeth, or purity of essense?
...welcome our new bucked-toothed rodent overlords!
The sad reality is that there's a huge underground market for kidneys and other organs, especially overseas. While growing new teeth are a start, the hope is that many of the other commonly failing organs will be replaceable over the next few decades.
Hopefully the ability to grow new organs from scratch will outpace the development of immune suppressants. In Niven's universe, the only reason organlegging thrived was that it was possible to transplant organs without problems. Now we know that rejection is a very real issue and only the latest classes of immune suppressants are making it almost a reality today.
That seems quite odd - both my parents have had cavities, root canals, all sorts of nasty problems. Myself and my 2 brothers, however, haven't even had so much as a cavity, and I'm the youngest at 34.
I would think flouridated water had at least something to do with that...
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On average Britons aged over 50 lose around 12 teeth out of 32.
Looks like this research is just in time!
How would you tell the tooth what kind to be? A molar? incisors? bicuspid?
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
I recently got a couple of crowns; some 12 year-old fillings had failed, as they often do when they reach that age. I have a number of other fillings that will probably need to be replaced with crowns over the next few years.
At first I wished that the teeth could be replaced with new ones, but then I realized something. The originals lasted 10-12 years before succumbing to decay, and the filled teeth lasted another 12 years. The crowns are made of porcelain-coated steel. They look great, are impervious to decay, and will probably last for the rest of my life. Why would I want to replace them with the troublesome things that were there before?
1. Grow new teeth using stem cell technology.
2. Set up office in Arkansas.
3. PROFIT!
I'm no religious zealot--well, maybe I am--but all the furor about stem cell research was that it would offer promise of repairing spinal cord injuries or brain diseases like Parkinson's. You should keep in mind that stem cells are "harvested" from dead human embryos.
And no matter where you stand on the "when does life begin question," I doubt that anyone would think a dead human embryo is a fair price for giving a hockey player a better smile.
Nope, Vagina dentata are real, although exremely rare (scroll down).
The previous sig has been removed due to
'Stem cells' can be told to create any organ if we learn how.
Remember that in the beginning we are just a lump of stem cell goo.. and everything we have was grown from them..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
of teeth! Mmmm...
I've been longing for the opposite: a complete replacement. Give me fake teeth that will never break or stain. Teeth that I can just roll down the window at the automated car wash and smile at the colored wax jets :) Teeth that can handle the abuse.
There is nothing more annoying for me than to be constantly reminded to brush and floss and visit the wallet-raping dentist twice a year. Heck, make them snap-on so I can take them out, toss them in a polishing machine for 30 seconds and be good for the day.
But don't go reinventing what's been broke since the dawn of time.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
start with diet: you need calcium. and not a lot of processed sugar.
good habits: brushing regularly. flossing. and not eating all the time (without brushing afterward).
there are medicines that you can take while you are growing up that will impact the development of your teeth.
diet and medicines that your mother was into before you were born.
there's a lot that goes into healthy teeth and some of this was really quite recent.
eric
If you cut off the end of your fingernails, you dont feel pain, or if you cut your hair you wont feel pain. Oh how annoying it is when you stop brushing your teeth and get a cavity that suddenly you feel pain! I mean come on evolution! Why can't I just let my teeth rot away and be none the wiser? Anyway on the serious side I see this as a great first step. Perhaps at 40 I could get a shot that would cause me to start losing my teeth and have new ones growing in to replace them. And I dont know about you, but I like having some feeling in my teeth.
It's no coincidence that this research is happening in the UK; they have a much more research-friendly policy.
I took horrible care of my teeth for a while there myself. I am looking at a $19,000 dentist bill to get it all fixed. Yes that was 3 zeros, I could buy a freaking car for that amount. So I have my choice, buy a car, or get my mouth back into a working order.
Crowns cost on the order of $1500 a piece, throw in a couple of those for teeth that have gotten broken (had a nasty fall when I was younger, thrashed my front 4 and the work I had doen ont hem then is starting to crap out through my previous lack of care).
I have good insurance it covers $1500/year of work.
I asked my dentist that once. He kind of shrugged and said, "I don't know. To let you know when it's time to go to the dentist, I guess."
because there is an issue with decay where the crown meets the enamal on the outside.
and the tooth probably failed because it died (or is dying) which means that the whole tooth is at risk.
eric
And this is natural...mmm...how?
Me and this guy I know both have bad dreams about all our teeth falling out, or about our teeth getting smashed, or about biting something too hard and losing teeth.
I suppose now we will have nightmares about hideous mutant teeth bursting out of our cheeks in fountains of blood, and being called "Toothy".
Q: What did the comedian say to the crowd?
A: If I knew, this joke would be funny.
I'm sorry, but you are mistaken. While genetics has a some effect on good tooth health, good diet and the presence of fluoride have an even greater effect.
When I want your opinion I will beat it out of you.
... is already going to get a new set of teeth in a few years. Go ahead and load him up on the sodas.
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
Correction to correction: Teeth are not made up of enamel the crown of the tooth is covered with enamel. Check it out here... http://kidshealth.org/kid/body/teeth_noSW.html
Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.
IIAD (American working in England, actually), and I don't see this stuff coming into anyone's mouth for many years to come.
... yeah, they've grown teeth in rats, but in their intestines, IIRC (intentionally in the intestines, but it's still a far cry from functioning dentition in the mouth).
The hurdles here are the same as hurdles for growing ANY tissue from stem cells. You don't just turn stem cells loose and tell them to become teeth. There is a hugely complex interaction of intra- and inter-cellular communication that goes on that tells a given cell whether to become part of the pulp, whether to start secreting enamel matrix, becoming an odontoblast, etc. If this were just five years off, we'd only be five years off from growing *hands*, etc.
Even if we could grow *a* tooth, we would have to grow the *right* tooth, especially in the "esthetic zone". How do we make sure that it *looks* like a central incisor with 11mm of enamel showing above the gingiva? How do we make the color right? Do we just grow something that is sort of tooth-like and put a crown on it automatically? Do we grow it in vitro and implant it in a surgical site? Do we grow it in situ? If so, how do we maintain the delicate balance of cellular influences in a mouth where someone ostensibly couldn't even keep their natural teeth in order?
I think that this is waaaaaay off in the distance. Their five year estimate is pie-in-the-sky pulled-out-of-their-ass.
In addition
You're right, once your teeth have matured, your nerves serve only one function - to tell the difference between hot and cold.
To quote from the site:
You might think that a tooth's nerve tissue is vitally important to a tooth's health and function, but in reality it's not. A tooth's nerve tissue plays an important role in the growth and development of the tooth, but once the tooth has erupted through the gums and has finished maturing the nerve's only function is sensory (it provides the tooth with the ability to feel hot and cold).
In regards to the normal day to day functioning of our mouths, the sensory information provided by a single tooth is really quite minimal. Dentists realize that on a practical level it is pretty much academic whether a tooth has a live nerve in it or not. If a tooth's nerve tissue is present and healthy, wonderful. But if a tooth has had its nerve tissue removed during root canal treatment that's fine too, you will never miss it.
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--- Ban humanity.
My wife had an accident when she was younger, and now has a large bridge on one side of her mouth. She would like to have real teeth replace a bridge. This might help. Remember that not all teeth are lost through poor dental hygeine
Always value the individual over the system. --Bruce Lee "I don't need a Sig - I have a custom 191" - me
Stem cell research does not need to be used as a reason for killing off unwanted pregnancies.
When was it ever used as such? Abortions get chucked in biohazard bags and incinerated like any other sort of medical waste.
You're living in a fantasy world if you think that Superhero Bush stopped legions of money-grubbing women who were clamoring to make a quick buck off of their abortions.
This is a non-issue if you take the time to think about it. Trash... or valuable medical research. Trash... or valuable medical research. Tough call there.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
... more than teeth. Well, it's both, but usually first as you age the gums recede too far, the tooth gets loose, nothing to hold it in, it gets wiggly, then comes out. It's like trying to keep a plant grtowing in 1 millimeter of soil, just not enough for the roots to hold.
Still interesting technology.
I had a root canal when I was 12. I'm 36 now, and it is still fine. Its not black, just a shade or two darker than the rest.
stem cells can be programmed to develop into teeth, and then inserted into the gap in a patient's jaw.
Can they program one to turn into a foot? Because then I'd have an excuse for all my off-color comments.
Oohhhh... I can see some really nasty jokes coming on what body parts can be inserted there.
This .gov site talks about fluoridation of water being a communist plot. For all you tinfoil-hat guys, watch out!
Wow, I never knew spelling could be so creative!
"Ready for a new trial, Bob. Where are the pliers?" ;(
A republic cannot succeed till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.
Actually, I have to admit that the first thought that came to mind when you mentioned hair in the context of growing teeth was that of a dermoid cyst, which then led me to thinking about what might happen if, say, the programming of the stem cell were to have been a little "buggy". I mean really - tinkering with totipotential cells and having them implanted in your mouth? What if it turns into some kind of giant tumorous megatooth? You'd have to drink thousands of litres of cola to kill it...
These people are a bit nerdy. Their making good use of undiferentated human cells.
I had a class in comparative vertebrate morphology last term, and we talked about this very issue. Highly innnervated teeth is a mammalian trait. Other vertebrates (reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, etc.) don't have a lot of nerves in their teeth. As you probably know, mammals have only two sets of teeth: the milk (or "baby") teeth and the adult teeth. The milk teeth fall out and are replaced during childhood/adolscence. Other vertebrates typically grow replacement teeth throughout their lives.
Why is this the case? Mammals process their food with their teeth much more than other vertebrates do. This allows us to eat more difficult things like tough plant parts and insects with hard exoskeletons that are unavailable as a food source to other vertebrates. This is one of the keys to mammalian success.
Mastication requires precise occlusion of the upper and lower teeth. Mammalian teeth have highly specialized forms for grinding, shearing, tearing, etc., and different regions of the jaw have different shapes of teeth. This precise occlusion is hard to maintain if teeth are constantly being lost and regrown, so mammals compromised: In exchange for really excellent, highly specialized teeth that allow them to exploit otherwise unavailable food resources, they only have two sets of teeth for their entire lives.
Here's a geek analogy: you have a certain amount of money you can spend on a new computer. Do you spend the big bucks and get a really great piece of hardware (like a G5 PowerMac or something) or do you buy rubbish and get two of them? Mammals decided to spend the big bucks and buy quality. Judging by the success of mammals, I'd say they made a good decision.
Having such awesome, precious teeth, mammals must protect them. The muscles of the jaw are easily strong enough to crush your teeth into powder. Having lots of nerves in teeth is one way that mammals prevent their teeth from premature destruction.
So how did mammals get away with only having two sets of teeth? Two ideas: 1) selection is weaker on older organisms that have already reproduced. Problems related to teeth wearing out are generally found among older individuals. 2) Primitive mammals were typically small (like the size of most rodents). Body size is positively correlated with lifespan in mammals, so the early mammals probably idn't live to be very old. Perhaps they didn't live long enough to wear out their teeth. By the time larger mammals evolved the dentition system was sort of set in stone, and they had to make do in other ways (and there are some amazing adaptations found among mammals for preserving their adult teeth as long as possible).
I've heard that the Ph of saliva also has to do on creating an environment (inside your mouth) that will or will not favor dentail ailments.
I have a porcelain cap and it blends in with the rest of my teeth very well. Why not use stem cell technology to regenerate spinal disks? I just read a Newsweek article that 65 million Americans have disk related back pain. I am among them and have not been in a good mood for the past year. If you ever injure your back and have pain in your sciatic nerve, then you'll know what I mean...
If you don't think spinal disks are important enough either, then you are probably correct, but are growing teeth from stem cells as important as the other things we can be doing will stem cells?
Why did I lurk so long before registering for a Slashdot account? I could have had a Slashdot ID of less than 100000.
the ability to grow back bone mass lost to periodontic disease. I have really bad teeth--not from lack of care, either--and unfortunately for me, I've suffered some gum recession and some bone loss where my teeth are attached to the jaw. Not a lot yet, but it's impossible to reverse at the moment. This new tooth technology will allow you to grow back a tooth in case you knocked it out in a fight or something, sure, but for people who have serious dental problems won't necessarily be helped by it. Especially because they haven't been able to stimulate root growth in the tooth yet, just the enamel (according to my dentist at least, who follows this mighty closely). Without a root, it's no better than the falsies they can make today, especially since the titanium socket bonds even better to your jaw than your real teeth do. Human bones grow very well into titanium for some reason. I'll be waiting for the shot that grows back a little bone and stimulates gum growth, at which time I'll jump for joy.
Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
Bah. I take issue with this write-up.
This is exactly what my dentist told me too. However, the problem is with this line:
If a tooth's nerve tissue is present and healthy, wonderful.
No, not wonderful. If I could, I'd have all the nerves removed from my teeth. All they do is hurt every time I eat something cold. Having slightly receding gums makes it much worse than for normal people. I've had one root canal, and that tooth which used to hurt a lot when I ate ice cream now doesn't feel anything at all. Now if I could only have that done easily for the other teeth.
Please provide a poll from a site with slightly less inherit bias than christianity.com
You're right, once your teeth have matured, your nerves serve only one function - to tell the difference between hot and cold.
Yeah, sure they serve only a sensory function (since when did that become useless? are nerve endings on skin also useless because they're "only" sensory?) but there are few other of those sensory functions. They feel pressure somewhat, preventing you from biting too hard and crushing your teeth.
Nowadays, they also alert you about cavities, though that's an unexcepted side effect, evolution probably didn't estimate arrival of dentists...
I'm in the same boat except for one thing: when my parents moved out here the lost the flouridated water (they moved when I was 2 and I'm second oldest). That leadds me to believe that fluoridation doesn't matter too much.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
Well Usually after a root canal you get the tooth filed down and crown placed over the tooth. The crown is usually ceramic outside (matching your teeth color) and gold metal for the biting part. The crown protects the leftover tooth from cracking. They should also last 15+ years.
Veramocor
Same thing we do every nite, Pinky: TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!!
I suppose I should have mentioned that with MY teeth, this is a subject I am following with great interest. There's this one tooth in particular that I finally had to get a crown on... so I guess I don't have much need for a new tooth now, I've already paid to get the damn thing fixed.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
I hope this works so I can get some live canine implants.
And, in related news, it seems that the National Hockey League Players Union has invested a quarter of a billion dollars into furthering the research into this wonderful new technology.
(joke, but it should be real..)
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
I've researched having implants done, it's quite expensive, and also destructive to your mouth, the process requires filing/drilling of the bone in your mouth in order to insert titanium seats that will then be built-on and capped with false teeth. As someone who's been to the dentist a lot, this prospect is not the most desirable.
BUT, Since I've heard of the work being done with stem-cells, I've always wondered why they've not tried teeth! What's inspiring about this process is:
- It's your OWN stem cells. Your Source-Code. No rejection.
- It's 100% natural, The teeth will continue to behave like real teeth and will wear and change shape along with the rest in your mouth.
- No more fooling with gooey-glop to keep your teeth in.
- No longer afraid to smile "too big" for fear someone might notice that the some of the teeth in your grill don't quite match.
- No fear of flying teeth when you laugh.
- Not having to pull out your teeth when you through the metaldetector at the airport. (they got these metal wires in there)
- Not having to excuse yourself from a restaraunt dinner table because some piece of herb is stuck between the roof of your mouth and your partial.
- being able to taste the full-range of food flavors.
- No more headaches (literally) caused by ill-fitting mouth-gear.
I would gladly volunteer for this. The promise of positive results is just too great.Now all of those women getting abortions can fix their fucked up visages!
Guess why I'm anonymous for this one!
I was going to put a long explaination here of why genetics play a bigger role than you think but I will just say this.
Genetics can play a HUGE role in teeth development and health. My entire family has bad teeth and it was not from bad diets or lack of flouride. It is just a bad gene that we have. Also, just to clarify I do not come from some redneck Arkansas family where one of every two males is named bubba but from your average american family that you see everyday
Teeth are made of neither bone (at all) or enamel (for the most part) as the incorrectly modded AC seems to think.
Part forming most of the human teeth is called dentine, somewhat harder and denser material than bone, and that bulk is coated with even hard outer layer of enamel.
Nowadays, they also alert you about cavities, though that's an unexcepted side effect, evolution probably didn't estimate arrival of dentists...
Or sugar...
But if you have pain on one side of your mouth, you'll use the other side exclusively until the first side recovers - which it can do in minor cases.
So, ironically, the people that could benefit the most from this (the class of people with so little disposable income that they can't afford to see a dentist regularly to take care of problems if and when they arise in the first place), wouldn't have enough money to pay for something like this anyways.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Teeth are occassionally 'grown' in other areas of the body, most notably in women who have fibrous cysts. Not unusual at all to have them removed and they contain hair or teeth due to weird DNA foul-ups.
-psy
I don't know about this business with cloning teeth. I just get the feeling it's going to come back to bite them someday. *rim shot*
Oh man, its time to get a new dentist.
> and there are some amazing adaptations found among mammals for preserving their adult teeth as long as possible
You mean brushing?
to bone loss.
you can read more about it here
I don't read or respond to AC posts
Naiveity can be cute. What about subacute bacterial endocarditis (a severe infection of the heart lining)? Heart attack? Oral health as an indicator of overall body health is being proven today (there is a lot of research in this area, for example "...the Surgeon General found that oral health is often an indication of a patient's overall health"). Your nerves (in the teeth, or gums) are an incredibly important indicator. Without them you would live in the comfort of cold-indetection and without cavity notification for a short time but could be ignoring a huge problem. Check out if your teeth are killing you.
"... selection is weaker on older organisms that have already reproduced. Problems related to teeth wearing out are generally found among older individuals."
... so are you retaking the course next semester, then?
Whether or not an individual's teeth fall out has no impact on their offspring. Loss of teeth is related to oral hygiene of the individual so it cannot be selected for.
"... the dentition system was sort of set in stone..."
From an evolutionary perspective, nothing is set in stone.
1) Boxers 2) Ice hockey players 3) Rugby players 4) My grandma
I wondered whether I should elaborate, but the original post was getting a bit long. I guess brushing would be considered an adaptaion, but not in the strict evolutioanry sense (yes, I realize you were joking :).
I was thinking of rodents. Beavers are a good example. Their front incisors have indeterminate growth because they are not rooted. They just keep growing out of their gums for their whole lives, while the beavers keep wearing them down by chewing on wood all of the time. This is a common strategy for mammals that do lots of tooth-eroding activities. There is another rodent that has rootless molars that they use for chewing up some really tough grass (I forget the name of the species at the moment).
Elephants use a different strategy. They delay development of their molars and emerge them one at a time from their gum as the previously-emerged molar wears out. They have the exact same number of molars as any other mammal, but this strategy gives them a "new" pair every so often. Old elephants die of starvation when they wear out their last pair of molars.
Horses have absurdly long teeth that grind down very slowly throughout their lives. Horses have such tall cheeks because their upper and lower jaws are full of these long teeth.
That's what I had in mind. And brushing too, I guess. This article would be another example of an adaptation to get around the limitations of two sets of teeth.
A typical reason for having a root canal in the first place is that the tooth has in fact already cracked due to age, stress, and/or disease. The restoration after the root canal reinforces the tooth against further damage, but more caries can always work against that.
You can remove this but than the tooth starts turning black.
What a load of rubbish. The pulp is the only "living" part of the tooth. Removing it (root canal) does not leave behind anything that suffers for lack of nutrition. Dentin is not a living tissue and has no nutritional needs.
Reminds me of Neuromancer - once this gets off the ground I want me a set of shark teeth!
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
Wrong. An individual who has no teeth will be at a serious disadvantage to even survive, let alone reproduce, especially if they have teeth that are specialized for a particular diet (like eating tough grass or crushing mollusk shells or something). In other words, it impacts the potential to have offspring. If the tooth loss has a genetic basis, then any offspring that the toothless individual does manage to have will be similarly disadvantaged when they reach reproductive age.. However, there would be comparatively little selection on a gene that caused all of their teeth to fall out the minute they finished reproducing.
This is pretty unique to humans in western cultures who eat too much refined sugar. Tooth decay like modern humans get is vanishingly rare in nature.
"Sort of set in stone" refers to phylogenetic inertia. Certain things just don't happen very often in evolution because of the difficulty of redesigning an organism. Why do ostriches have wings? Why do humans have an (apparently) nonfunctional vermiform appendix? Why do vertebrates have two sets of limbs instead of three sets? Why am I feeding a troll?
Maybe you should take a few biology courses yourself, mate.
Whoo! You need some work, and I'm not talking about dentures!
You've got one primary recurring issue, and a couple of occidental minor ones. Nothing a little grammar check can't fix, though.
The big thing today is "than/then". Here's your x-rays:
Since you have root canales than you know [...]
You can remove this but than the tooth [...]
We'll need to do a grammatical canal here, and take those things out. I've had a replacement crafted, you may have heard of it. It's the remarkable "then".
"Then" is a part of speech that belongs to the Preposition family, and is typically used to start a supplemental phrase, often found just after a conjunction.
What we've got in here, see, is "than". Than's a comparator, and needs two things to work on. Something like "your post sounds more clumsy than a drunken ogre".
Now that we have that cleared up, I think we're good for today. Oh, there's some other issues like "canales" and "brook", but I think they may be typos that will clear up on their own. We can save those for another visit if need be.
Proofread every post, and don't forget to spellcheck!
-GrammarFairy, DDS
GrammarFairy dust for you:
~.,.'"`'~.,'"'.
Think of your bank or credit card company. I have a friend who is terrible paying bills, but pays them-- late. He gets more credit card applications in the mail and phone calls than anyone I know. Why? Simple. The money is in the service fees and racking up interest. Your bank is the same way with ISF (insufficient funds) check-bounce fees, etc. They're not going to close your account- they're making a huge return on any investment they give you (a line of credit for ISF).
The point is, like those companies, healthcare providers make much more money on fixing rather than preventing problems. For example, to prevent dental problems one could use an oral irrigator, a good tooth cleansing agent, a harmful-bateria killing solution, and minerals to help in tooth regeneration (remineralization). This in addition to the right information. How much does this cost compared to a bridge? Compared to 10 cavities, 3 root canals over several years? Last I checked the dentist only gave me a toothbrush and floss.
I would seriously suggest reading some of the information out there.
This link you provided seems to call for better oral hygeine to prevent bacteria from forming at the base of the teeth, at the gumline. It doesn't say anything at all about them getting in the roots of the teeth, or about root canals having any effect.
So are you trying to say that people shouldn't get root canals then? What do you propose people do when their roots get infected?
Root canals are performed (usually) due to bacterial invasion of the dental pulp by bacteria you see in what a layman may call a cavity (caries). Your pulp contains nerves, blood vessels, connective tissue, various other stuff. As the pulp chamber is a rigid chamber with no room for the inflammatory process, a constant bacterial invasion results in death (necrosis) of the tissue in the pulp. A root canal procedure is one in which a dentist or endodontist ATTEMPTS to remove all pulp within the tooth to prevent pain and, more importantly, a spread of infection to the rest of the oro-facial complex. If you leave a significant amount of pulp on the inside of the tooth two things can happen. The infection will continue and spread to the bone, or the tooth will discolor from the dead tissue hangin around the inside of the tooth. Therefore, no, you shouldn't get a discolored tooth from a properly administered root canal treatment.
However, there would be comparatively little selection on a gene that caused all of their teeth to fall out the minute they finished reproducing.
Given the fact that primates have culture, having an older relative who can teach you things, not to mention provide for you, can be helpful.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
I was referring to notion that nerves/nerve endings in the teeth/gums are not necessary and that evolution should have removed them.
There are several alternatives to root canals. In reality, your problem could be misdiagnosed. Root canal should be an absolute last resort. You could get the tooth pulled (low-tech alternative), you could also take proper care of your teeth and let them heal themselves. It could be the case that your teeth are too far gone and you must have one-- however, you really should fix the cause of the problem and take this time as an opportunity to fix it at the root (no pun intended). At this point, you should never have another root canal.
Check out this page which directly answers the question about the need for root canals by Dr. Robert O. Nara. That page has a lot of good information, much of it from Dr. Nara, and is a good source of information on oral health. It is run buy a guy who wants to get the information out because he feels it has helped him and his families health but isn't widely available.
flouride is only beneficial in moderate amounts, i know from personal experience. the town i live in(holland, VA) had(and still does) 6x the recommended level of flouride in the water. nobody knew this when i was growing up, and my doctor back then prescribed flouride vitamins for me. which has ruined my teeth, the enamel in spots became brittle and chipped off exposing lower layers of the teeth that stain very easily. not only does this weaken the teeth but it would look like i have a mouth full of cavaties if not for the coating i had put on my front teeth.
bring on the test tube teeth baby!
I applude you and your efforts. I knew that whole dental care was a scam. When my current teeth decide to vacate, I will just get new ones. I knew the day would come, no more hearing "thats only set of teeth you'll ever have" and so forth. Finally my day has arrived.
If we don't make light of everything, we are just stumbling in the dark - Blank
They used mice yes, but they wouldn't of used mice teeth, instead they would have grown some people teeth on mice bones.
Interesting question - I asked myself the same just the other week.
I asked my dentist, what the evolutionary cause for teeth nerves was - no answer.
Then I met a college buddy how studied biology - answer: Ask the big guy above.
Do I hate that answer or what? It's not even a fucking answer.
So does anybody know?
I read the other replys, but nothings seems to be for sure.
Are there no papers about the subject?
Someone must have asked themselves that before....?
Don't they realize that the Tooth Fairies job is hard enough and now they have to deal with these counterfeit teeth popping out of nowhere all over the place! Think of the Tooth Fairies will ya!
"The Tooth Fairy has just filed for bankruptcy, more news at eleven."
"Certain things just don't happen very often in evolution because of the difficulty of redesigning an organism."
Uhhhh. You're suggesting then that evolution wants to head a certain way, but it's too difficult? Maybe, the need simply doesn't develope.
Holy shit, me and all my friends are having a party tonight.
Anyone else here in Arkansas is welcome to attend, I'll be popping the beers with my teeth.
-- the only good thing the French ever did was two chicks at one time
Flouridated water was presented by the communist threat to zap an impurify our precious bodily fluids.
No more brushing my teeth and all the Coke I can drink!
Take that, Mother, with all your dire predictions about my teeth rotting out.
You know, back when I was a kid in late elementary school I was an avid reader of science fiction. I remember thinking that by the time my adult teeth were starting to wear out or become dinged or decayed the technology would be in place to grow replacements.
Of course that was back in the late '50s. I didn't imagine something like the FDA and the Thalidomide parinoia putting the skids under medical technology development.
It's about TIME they got around to it!
(Fortunately, dental hygene isn't just about keeping 'em from rotting, or I'd probably be weraing dentures by now.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Endodontically treated teeth do not discolor due to lack of nutrients. Once the pulp of the tooth is removed, it must be filled with an inert material to seal the instrumented canal. More often than not, discoloration is due to incomplete removal of filling and sealing materials from the pulp chamber. The metallic additives placed in the gutta-percha filling so that it will show up nicely on an x-ray oxidize over time, discoloring the tooth. It usually isn't visible, though, since the filling material shouldn't extend above the level of the bone. Other less frequent causes include pulp tissue remnants left behind and various intracanal medications. And by the way, an endodontically treated tooth is still surrounded by neurovascular tissue in the periodontal ligament which attaches it to the surrounding bone, so it's more "brain dead" than "dead"..
Amoung dentists, we do consider dentin is a living tissue (or at least, most dentists I know would consider it living). It has microscopic tubules inside in which there are cells or extensions of cells that are in the pulp. If you cut into it (eg. when doing a filling), pain will be percieved. People with recession and exposed root surfaces often temperature sensitivity since the dentin is exposed.
Does dentin require any nutrition? That is a bit of a point of debate still. When a root canal is done, the pulp tissue is removed, and the tooth is essentially dead. Normally, the pressure from inside the pulp causes slow fluid flow through those tubules to the outside. I'm not sure if anybody has determined exactly what that does (perhaps some sort of defensive flushing mechanism has been speculated). I don't know of any studies that have been done about teeth with root canal treatment (and hence lacking this fluid flow) being more vulnerable to anything either.
Teeth which have had root canals do dry out though, and thus the dentin does become slightly more brittle (and hence prone to fracture). More so, the access opening that has to be made to do the root canal weakens the tooth structurally (think of a cylinder with closed ends, and then you put a hole through one end into the hollow center)... hence again root canal teeth being more fragile. And as mentioned, the root canal is often done because of prexisting factors such as large amount of decay or trauma. Therefore, a crown is often highly recommended to reinforce what is left. Much better than having the tooth fracture straight down the root (which I have seen quite often with uncrowned root canaled teeth) and then having to be pulled because you can't fix it.
As to the tooth turning black, that often is a result of the oxidation of the materials that are used to seal the canal up after root canal treatment is performed.
And this technique of growing a new tooth? I hope people are very patient, since the process to grow a new tooth will probably take years (at least, that's how long it takes for you body to form one when you are young).
-- Silhouette
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
I grew up in a place where there was a lot of fluoride in the water, and the schools also had programs to provide additional fluoride.
And where is that? Soviet Russia? I'd be concerned about the purity of my bodily fluids if i were you.
no worries about this ever becoming useful. there have been many teeth transplants in hospital settings, usually from impacted wisdom teeth being removed and put in a gap. the success rate is very low, under 1 % i believe. take artificial implats, with a titanium bolt that is actually bio reactive (the titanium fuses with the bone for a stronger seal), and you have a 95% success rate. given the success of the artificial teeth, cloning of teeth will be used more to study cloning individual body parts more than dentistry.
evolution probably didn't figure on you living past 30 either... but, contrary to teenagers wishes , here we are :-)
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
Very interesting. I wasn't aware of dentinal tubules so thank you for this informative reply. Here is more information:
The tubules are devoid of nerve tissue except for very short extensions.
The nerve cell bodies reside in the pulp.
Over time the pulp may lay down ... reparative dentin.
Recent research has also shown that, for people that don't like flossing, regular mouthwashing with an antiseptic has almost the same effect as a good floss (it kills the germs between the teeth if you swish it around well enough).
Now, sometimes you should still floss, but with regular mouthwashing you can reduce that. It's also much more convenient to have a small mouthwash container (there are some that are "concentrate" - just add water to accompanying mini-cup) than to stop for a brush+floss after lunch at work or whatnot.
I've also found that chewing a quick (sugarless) stick of gum helps clear off the back teeth. If it's a sticky gum, it will lift a lot of stuff off the teeth as you chew. Of course, that means the gum gets nasty rather quickly, so spit it out and go for the mouthwash afterwards.
no worries about this ever becoming useful. there have been many teeth transplants in hospital settings, usually from impacted wisdom teeth being removed and put in a gap. the success rate is very low, under 1 % i believe.
1% might be true if we're talking about teeth from a different person (they're probably rejected, like all foreign tissues), but it's much better than that if they're your own. Otherwise no-one would even bother implanting teeth back.
My dentist told me, while implanting three teeth that made unfortunately made too close friends with asphalt, that possibility of any one of them going loose within few years was about 33%, so far (7 or 8 years, I think) they've all stayed.
Even this is probably because they're, strictly speaking, dead. In a case like the one described in article where a new teeth actually grows from a "bud" and promotes nerves and blood vessels to grow back, success rate should be very near 100%.
Cavities are an invention of the dental industry and the liberal media to sell useless products and pastes. Now I've read the arguments on both sides and I see no evidence to support brushing your teeth. Ever. Besides, I got rid of my teeth at an early age because I'm straight. Teeth are for gay people. That's why fairies come and get 'em.
60 percent of the time, my comments are right everytime.
Uhhh, my comment is not incorrectly modded; if you want to be that specific, I already knew that teeth are made of layers: enamel (outer), dentin (beneath the enamel) and the innermost part, the pulp, consisting of the nerves and blood vessels. My point was that teeth are not made of bone as the parent post suggested, and the enamel is the part of the tooth that bears the brunt of chewing anyway. I've certainly spent enough time and money at the dentist (due to my childhood love of candy and soda) to have been lectured ad nauseum on tooth structure. Hence my extreme interest in this topic. See: http://32teethonline.com/intropage2.htm. I guess this is what I get for posting before I've had my full coffee ration for the day:-)
check out Dentigenix this is a startup you should keep your eyes on.