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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."
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.
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The article doesn't seem to say whether or not these teeth can be grown without fetal stem cells. Expect protest if so.
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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
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?
Your post reminds me of the riddle:
You move to a new town and there are only two dentists - one with really good teeth and one with really bad teeth. Which one do you choose to be your dentist?
Brownie points (and probably Karma too) to whoever gives the explanation along with their answer.
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Yea, until you notice they tried it out on MICE first. MICE! Rodents regrow their teeth like nuts. Infact, mice teeth never stop growing, that's why they sell those little concrete blocks for the cage, so they can keep their teeth in check.
Stupid scientists.
Candy-Coated Knowledge
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.
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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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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?
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.
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Fetal stem cell research is almost irrelevant. The Australians have extracted stem cells from baby teeth. It gives new meaning to why the tooth fairy leaves money. Then there is the process for extracting stem cells from body fat. Stem cell research does not need to be used as a reason for killing off unwanted pregnancies. Fetus's are not the only source of stem cells, they are just one of the first sources discovered.
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If people will pay hundreds of dollars to have a good tattoo sleeve on their arm, or go through the pain and effort to expand their earlobes/nipples/whatever with gauge-zero spacers, why not custom teeth? The fact that they're actual living teeth, grown from your own stem cells, would just add value to the investment.
Also, I'm sure that if this becomes viable, the urge to improve on nature will be impossible to resist (through GM or some mechanical means as the tooth grows in a lab somewhere). How about a new set of "metric teeth" or a set with an engineered, non-stick coating?
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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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 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?
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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.
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
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.
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.