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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."
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.
The article I read said the stem cells were taken from the patient... I doubt that they're planning on replacing teeth in unborn foetuses.
I hate Grammar Nazi's
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.
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.
It's worrying to think that this development might lead to people becoming complacent about their oral hygiene. Just as the pill doesn't prevent people from contracting STD's, the ability to grow teeth through stem cell technology shouldn't send the message to the general public that it's OK to cut corners with personal health.
... the rest of us will continue to excersize good habits, and have even better dental health available to us than beforehand...complete with new teeth when our old ones fail simply as a result of age, get cracked, or otherwise damaged with time and use.
Exactly right. Jokes about no longer flossing aside, if you lose your gums to gum disease, it won't matter how many shiny new teeth you can grow. Without gums they'll be worse than useless, they'll be a liability, complete with nerves to exact an excruciating lesson as to why.
That having been said, its an excellent addition to our medical/dental toolkit, and one I welcome. Stupid people will use it as an excuse to let their hygene go to hell
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I'd look for a dentist in another town.
Your riddle was originally intended as a question of barbers, one with terrible hair and one with well-styled hair. It does not translate as well to dentistry, as dental hygene requires personal effort in addition to regular dentist visits. True, hairstyles also require some personal effort, but at least most people don't cut their own hair, so a barber with badly shorn hair would indicate that his barber is a lousy cut.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!