Scientists at the King's College London's have discovered a method to grow teeth in their lab from a person's own gum cells, called 'Bioteeth'. However, more research has yet to be done for the success of these bio-engineered teeth, which may be the future of teeth replacement.

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What are bioteeth?

Once our deciduous teeth are shed, they are replaced with a set of new permanent ones, but in case of losing permanent teeth, replacement is accomplished with an implant, fixed crown and bridge or denture. Science has now made strides and has found a way to generate natural teeth with viable roots in the laboratory from human cells.

Researchers isolated human adult gingival cells and grew them in the lab, then combined them with embryonic mesenchymal cells from mice. This combination was then transplanted into mice renal tissue and later resulted in the formation of hybrid teeth containing enamel, dentine and viable roots.

Limitations of current options

Although bio-compatible titanium implants are currently available that get integrated into the jaw bone and are successful in the majority of the cases, they can, in some cases, cause bone loss. Therefore viable roots formation has proven to be a key breakthrough that could eliminate this problem with implants.

Previously, researchers were focused on producing bio-engineered teeth using embryonic cells, which can be inserted into adult jaws as 'pellets' and later can grow into functional teeth. However, using the source of these cells is impractical.

Natural tooth as a replacement

Professor Paul Sharpe, an expert in craniofacial development and stem cell biology at King's College London's Dental Institute, who led the research, said the requirement was of the identification of adult sources of human epithelial and mesenchymal cells that could be obtained in sufficient numbers to make biotooth formation a viable alternative to dental implants. Therefore, their next major challenge has to identify a way to culture adult human mesenchymal cells to be tooth-inducing; at the moment, only embryonic mesenchymal cells could do this.

Bioteeth will be a viable option

Even though there is a need for more research and experiment, with the success of creating and combining necessary cells, the possibility for bioteeth to become an optional clinical procedure exists.