For hundreds of years dentures have been the most common method to replace missing teeth and over the past two decades, dental implants have become an increasingly popular treatment to replace missing teeth. Now, scientists and at some of the worlds leading research establishments are developing techniques which may eventually make the bio-regeneration of missing teeth a reality.
Dr Ophir Klein at UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) is heading a research team which is currently developing a way to grow human teeth from stem cells to form a natural tooth implant which could then be surgically positioned into the patient’s mouth. He proposes that some day it may be possible to implant the pre-cursor tooth at an early stage of development and allow it to complete its development within the patient’s mouth. Another approach which Dr Klein proposes is to implant stem cells into a decayed tooth and allow regeneration to take place.
The study – which currently involves conducting the research in mice – recently caught the interest of CRIM (The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine) who awarded grant of there million dollars to the project with the objective of discovering out how to create human teeth through the development of stem cell technology.
In the UK, Professor Paul Sharpe is leading a team of researchers at Guy’s Hospital in London who are currently developing the technology to make human stem cell regenerated teeth possible. Their previously published work demonstrated successfully growing a complete human tooth from a culture of stem cells within the bodies of mice. The regenerated teeth were the correct size, surrounded by connective tissues, human jaw bone material and had a partially formed root.
Professor Sharpe’s research resulted in a company, Odontis Ltd, being established to create a remarkable new stem cell technology to grow living human teeth within the patient. The company later successfully applied and patented such a technology which used bone marrow stem cells to initiate growth of the tooth.
Further research is being carried out at Columbia University Medical Center by a team lead by Dr. Jeremy Mao, who is the Professor of Dental Medicine at the university. Their research has resulted in the development of a 3 dimensional scaffold which is said to have the potential to be implanted into a patient and fully regenerate into a perfect human tooth in only nine weeks.
This technological advancement eradicates the requirement to grow human teeth in a specialized lab or elsewhere in the human body, and it is the first time that regeneration of anatomically correct tooth has been made possible by using the natural resources of the human body. This together with a quick recovery period and the relatively natural process of regeneration – as opposed to implantation a foreign body – provides an extremely appealing treatment for replacing a missing tooth.
Columbia University has applied for a patent regarding this technique and is also currently attempting to find business associates to help transform the research into a commercial enterprise. Presently the technique is being refined to determine the most effective strategy for applying the technology to eventually provide cost-effective dental treatments.
Although stem cell regenerated tooth technologies are at an advanced stage, it will be many years until it becomes available to the general public. It is predicted that successful tooth regeneration within a human subject is likely to be achieved within the next 12 to 18 months. Such an event would be a significant medical breakthrough leading the way for eventually developing technologies to grow and repair other human organs. The breakthrough would be followed up by further intensive research and a considerably lengthy period of medical trials.
In the meantime, conventional dental implant techniques are likely to remain the most effective option for replacing missing teeth, as stem cell regenerated tooth treatments are predicted to become commercially available within 6 to 10 years.
