Scientists recently made a breakthrough discovery, announcing that adults may one day be able to grow replacement teeth. This would offer patience a natural alternative to the fillings that are currently used in dental practice. After losing our baby teeth, humans only get one set of teeth for their entire adult lives. However, certain animals, such as elephants and sharks, have the ability to regrow new teeth throughout their lives. If we humans could do the same thing, it would revolutionize dentistry and tooth care. This is where the new research on lab-grown teeth comes into play.

The Exciting Promise of Lab-Grown Teeth
Nowadays, dentists typically rely on fillings and implants to deal with dental issues. However, these are fixed in place and do not adapt organically over time. The lab-grown teeth are unique as they are made from the cells of the patient and function like a natural tooth. For more than ten years now, researchers at King’s College London have been exploring the potential of lab-grown teeth. Existing methods of tooth repair, such as fillings, actually weaken the structure of the tooth over time, often resulting in increased sensitivity and even further decay. Furthermore, getting implants requires invasive surgery and doesn’t do anything to improve natural tooth function, often resulting in long-term issues.

Read More: Regrowing Teeth Is on the Horizon and May Represent the Future of Dentistry

Working together with Imperial College London researchers, King’s College London made a breakthrough regarding the environment required to produce lab-grown teeth. The researchers managed to introduce a specific material that effectively allows cells to communicate with one another. Basically, this means that a cell can instruct another cell to start converting into a tooth cell. In essence, this simulates the environment of developing teeth, enabling the researchers to mimic the tooth development process in their laboratories.

According to Xuechen Zhang, who works at the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, King’s College London, “We developed this material in collaboration with Imperial College to replicate the environment around the cells in the body, known as the matrix. This meant that when we introduced the cultured cells, they were able to send signals to each other to start the tooth formation process.” In their previous attempts, all the signals were sent at one time, causing these experiments to fail. However, this new material works differently, slowly releasing the signals over time. This replicates what typically happens in the body naturally.