Canadian Scientists Regrow Teeth

54mc writes "APL reports that Canadian Scientists have created the first device able to regrow teeth and bones. The researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton filed patents earlier this month in the United States for the tool based on low-intensity pulsed ultrasound technology after testing it on a dozen dental patients in Canada."

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[nietsch]

here

Horse Hockey!

[wdkeeper1]

Horse hockey on the "growing a new tooth" thing, but I can see repairing damaged teeth, depending on the cause of the damage. You need the presence of odontoblasts, etc in order for a new tooth to grow. That guy Chen is an engineer, not a dentist. I'm thinking he doesn't really understand how teeth form and grow, so he's got high hopes for his invention. The root structure of teeth is covered in cementum and dentin, which are repairable, so it makes sense that teeth with root resorption may be fixed by the ultrasonic thing. But to completely grow new teeth, you'd have to have "tooth stem cells" in the area, and those stem cells would have to know what size and shape of tooth to form for that area. I don't see that one happening. I also don't see damaged enamel being fixed by this thing; once enamel is gone, it's pretty much gone.

Re:Horse Hockey!

[asuffield]

I also don't see damaged enamel being fixed by this thing; once enamel is gone, it's pretty much gone.

I'm not sure about the rest, but this bit is wrong. Tooth enamel is worn down all the time by your teeth being used, both from abrasion and acidity; this is the normal way they are supposed to work. It is continually replaced by your body, through a chemical process based around your saliva that deposits minerals on the teeth from the outside. So long as the environment in your mouth is not acidic (ie, you haven't been eating sugary food recently) and your diet supplies all the necessary minerals (mostly calcium), fresh enamel will be deposited. Damaged enamel doesn't really need "fixing", you can just let it reform.

The reason why people tend to think that it can't reform is because the process that grows the teeth in the first place can't be repeated - that deposits enamel in a completely different manner. Also, the reenameling process is quite slow and will only work if you don't snack on sugary things all day.

The problem is when the tooth is damaged below the level of the enamel; this can't be regrown currently (and prevents the tooth from re-enameling over the top) because the damage from eating progresses faster than the tooth can heal. If the enamel has been worn through completely, damage to the tooth below is inevitable - that's when your dentist drills it out and fills it. If this invention can do something about that, it's a significant step forward.

Re:Inevitable Discovery

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you are talking about Bobby Clarke, the current GM of the Flyers. He had one of those great hockey smiles, where you could slide a puck between the gap in his smile. The photo you are thinking of I believe was when the Flyers won the cup in the 70's (he played there before becoming the GM).

Oh, and it isn't a sterotype. There are very few pro players who haven't lost a few chicklets along the way. Between sticks, pucks, hard hits, solid boards, and fights, about the only players who aren't missing a couple are the goalies. Hard to imagine the goalies only started wearing ANY facial protection in the late fifties, early sixties.

Better Link, Article from Globe & Mail (Canada

[geerbox]

For the engineers in the room...

http://www.ece.ualberta.ca/~jchen/

Article from the Globe & Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.2 0060628.TEETH28/TPStory/National

Not new exactly

[TimmyDee]

A few years ago, I broke both bones in my forearm -- the radius was broken so badly that I had pulverized a small portion of it so the two parts didn't line up exactly. They didn't notice this in the x-rays (and so couldn't cut into my hip as they hadn't gotten my authorization for that), so they tried artifical (read: cadaver) bone to regrow the spot. Didn't work.

A few months later, they enrolled me in a trial of a similar sort of ultrasonic technology by which my bone should regrow. They had been getting a 94% success rate with fibias, but the arm was something new. Needless to say, I was one of those lucky minorities that didn't show any growth. Months later, I was back on the table with new bone being brought in from my hip. Six weeks after that, I was healed. While cool, there is certainly no replacement for real bone.