Why is it impossible to naturally heal/regrow teeth?

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Our bones heal naturally when broken, at least to some extent, so why is it not the same with teeth, which are arguably more useful?

Even the tooth regrowing drug developed recently will be first tested on humans with congenitally missing tooth, not those who lost their teeth later in life, at least from what I understand, which means there’s no *re*growing anything.

Will it ever be possible to fully regrow a tooth and have it be just like the one you lost?

In: Biology

6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

You seem to have missed the news where a japanese team very recently succeeded in making teeth grow (in rodents, I think). If I remember correctly, it was by disabling an inhibiting gene.

They hope for a clinical application on humans in the next 5-6 years (and have already started recruiting for clinical trials on humans, I think)

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