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Scientists Re-grow Dental Enamel
A reader at Cloning Resources writes "Dental enamel is the hardest tissue produced by the body. It cannot regenerate itself, because it is formed by a layer of cells that is lost by the time the tooth appears in the mouth. The enamel spends the remainder of its lifetime vulnerable to wear, damage, and decay. In hopes of eventually replacing teeth, scientists from Japan have developed a new method for growing dental enamel."
Like all genetic regrowth techniques, this one has a long way to go before it could be used in humans. At present, it involves using pig cells incubated in the abdominal tissue of living rats. Fascinating, to be sure, but not quite mainstream yet.
It is interesting that this group is using collagen sponges as scaffolding; I'm glad to hear research has continued with that technique to the point that it is functional for growing complex tissues.
This is certainly promising; the step from here to fully-regrown teeth is not overwhelming. Still, I wouldn't bet on your Coca-Cola stocks skyrocketing just yet.
-1 raving lunatic; +6 subGenius... Things even out...
thath a good thing, I thay!
So much for my five year long attempt to kick my sugar/caffeine addiction...
Fix that diabetes crap and I will be a programming god with an unlimited fuel source.
Aside from the article submitter copying and pasting the first paragraph of the article into the submission...
I have tongue rings, and my enamel wore down because of them. Which makes me sad. I digress.
Enamel fillings, instead of metal? Rock.
TFA mentions replacing whole teeth? I can see this catching on with old people.
Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if you could grow a layer of white enamel over the yellow enamel. Then, smokers wouldn't need to go buy whitening strips anymore!
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This is a godsend for those people who grit their teeth involuntarily at night, like my father. The enamel on his teeth is most likely all gone already. (And those people who are nervous before exams in school and grit their teeth, etc.)
And, who knows, we might even be able to avoid filling teeth in the future; just apply/create some enamel in a cavity after burning the bacteria, neutralising the acid and stuff like that.
... I was thinking as I was having my wisdom teeth removed that it would be nice if it could be possible to artificially trigger the same response that causes the 'baby' teeth to fall out, maybe by injecting something in the root to cause it to disolve. Much less blood, pain, and (potential) nerve damage.
http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/nice_teef.jpg
But seriously, I've lost most of the enamel at my gum line (apparently due to brushing too virorously!), I've had one root canal (== dead tooth), and several big fillings. I've been eagerly awaiting someone to figure out how to grow new teeth so that when I yawn, people aren't blinded by sunlight refelcting off all the silver in my mouth.
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
In the emergent field of tooth-tissue engineering, several groups have developed their own approaches.
IOW, there are many tries, but this one's got teeth to it?
Have you read my journal today?
There was an article last year about someone coming up with using ultrasonic waves to trigger regrowth of teeth.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/0606
This seems much more along, and less complicated. I imagine a new use for an ultrasonic transducer is easier to get approved than transgenic tissue grafting.
I really wish there was some central repository of active studies, with an easy way to grade their progress and potential oversight burden. I imagine being able to subscribe to studies and experiments, and receiving updates when available. The most irritating thing about 'scientific discovery' news articles is the fickle nature of the media to keep people in the loop on it. Whenever a bold claim is made, it becomes news. But the incremental progress is not sexy, so you never hear of it again. How many 'promising' cures for various cancers have we heard of, only to never heard of them again?
++ Informative
That is the really sad thing about tongue piercings and mouth piercings that nobody tells you about before you get them.
Unless they're properly sized, your teeth will get worn and chipped. I chipped a molar a week after I had my tongue pierced.
Regarding the technique in the article, I think a better solution for many people is to figure out how to stimulate the growth of completely new teeth in adults, yank 'em all, and have all new ones grow in place. Especially if you can decide to omit extra molars the second time around for people with smaller mouths.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
Sort of. The pressure from the adult teeth cause the roots of the baby teeth to dissolve. A baby tooth falling out doesn't look like an extracted tooth - the root is almost gone by time it falls out.
Let's see Wikipedia must have something on this.... ah, here:
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
That is the really sad thing about tongue piercings and mouth piercings that nobody tells you about before you get them.
What? JFGI.
Do you mean those marketing the product didn't tell you about the risks or that you didn't do any research?
Lesson 1: Don't believe people trying to sell you something
Lesson 2: Cosmetic body alterations are almost never a good idea.
These used to fall under the heading of 'common sense'.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
They propagated the cell-sponge matrix inside rat's abdomens. And they want that in your mouth? Ick. Biotech has a strong gross-out factor sometimes. They put dead people's bones in living people and use cow bone for reconstruction? Are we becoming vampires in a hi-tech manner?
Josh
gigantino.tv - Heavy but weighs nothing.
Yet another miraculous health technology for the wealthy. I'm sure that top dental institutes will use the vast wealth of the US to hire some Jap dentists with this technique and keep us at the top of the health care ladder. For the wealthy that is; most of the population can't afford even basic dental work or health care nor insurance. For us, there is only the game of waiting for the tooth infection that kills.
Maybe I'm just missing something, but ceramics have been around for a long time. Couldn't you use ceramics instead of 'home grown' enamel for the same effect? (I'd feel more safe doing that than putting pig teeth incubated in rat guts in my mouth.)
Biology is amazing and cool in general. It's just that many humans haven't come to terms with the fact that they are biological creatures. Notice how the GP references artificial blood as though this would somehow be an intrinsically better solution than natural biological blood. This is just an anti-biology prejudice that comes from denying one's human and animal nature.