People with missing teeth may be able to grow new ones, say Japanese dentists testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants.
  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    7·
    6 days ago

    Every time I read about this, I have to ask: I have had an adult tooth removed and replaced with an implant. I’m scheduled to have another tooth removed (an incisor. I’m currently on a no biting things diet and I’m getting sick of soup). What happens if I take this medicine?

    • Mongostein@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      5 days ago

      But hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, according to Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka.

      His team launched  clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental medicine to adult test subjects that they say has the potential to jumpstart the growth of these concealed teeth.

      …

      Tests on mice and ferrets suggest that blocking a protein called USAG-1 can awaken the third set, and the researchers have published lab photographs of regrown animal teeth.

      What I would infer from this is that you’d regrow the whole set and you can only do it once. You’d either have to have your teeth removed or let them be pushed out. I’m not sure, but it doesn’t sound pleasant.

      Edit:

      A confident Takahashi argues that the location of a new tooth in a mouth can be controlled, if not pinpointed, by the drug injection site.

      And if it grows in the wrong place, it can be moved through orthodontics or transplantation, he said.

      Oh maybe not. 🤷‍♂️

      The drug is therefore aimed primarily at children, and the researchers want to make it available as early as 2030.

      Gonna be a while though.