No more root canals? Scientists aim to regrow teeth using stem cells

[BlueGin]

Regrowing teeth. Wonder how much something like this would cost? As it is now dental care is WAY too expensive. Pretty cool technology though.

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Could the days of the root canal, for decades the symbol of the most excruciating kind of minor surgery, finally be numbered?

Scientists have made advances in treating tooth decay that they hope will let them restore tooth tissue—and avoid the painful dental procedure. Several recent studies have demonstrated in animals that procedures involving tooth stem cells appear to regrow the critical, living tooth tissue known as pulp.

Treatments that prompt the body to regrow its own tissues and organs are known broadly as regenerative medicine. There is significant interest in figuring out how to implement this knowledge to help the many people with cavities and disease that lead to tooth loss.

In the U.S., half of kids have had at least one cavity by the time they are 15 years old and a quarter of adults over the age of 65 have lost all of their teeth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated $108 billion was spent on dental services in 2010, including elective and out-of-pocket care, according to the CDC.

Read more: No more root canals? Scientists aim to regrow teeth using stem cells | Fox News

 

[waltky]

Granny says dem Chinamens is strange people...

Chinese Scientists Grow Teeth From Urine
July 30, 2013 > Chinese scientists claim they have been able to generate new teeth from a strange source: human urine.

In a study published in the Cell Regeneration Journal, researchers from the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health say they were able to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from cells in human urine and coax them into becoming different cell types that mimic tooth components such as enamel, dentin, cementum and pulp.

Chinese scientists have grown teeth from stem cells cultured from human urine.

Stem cells have shown great promise because of their ability to be made into many types of cells including heart cells and even neurons. After culturing the iPSCs, they were mixed with mouse cells and transplanted into the mice’s jawbones. In three weeks “tooth-like structures were recovered,” but with only a 30 percent success rate.

While the experiment may offer hope for those who have lost teeth due to decay or injury, the teeth generated in the process were only about one-third as hard as human teeth.

Harvesting stem cells from urine avoids the controversy of using human embryonic stem cells, but Prof. Chris Mason, a stem cell scientist at University College London, told the BBC that urine does not make for a good source of stem cells and that it is prone to infection. "You just wouldn't do it in this way,” he said.

Chinese Scientists Grow Teeth From Urine