In six years, if all goes well, humans will be able to regrow teeth. Dentists must hate this. Well, unless they are the only source of the tooth-growing drugs.
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... I got really excited until I found out it was to regrow teeth you have lost instead of to regrow the... stuff... on the surface of teeth you still have.
1. I don't want to have to have all my teeth extracted to get them fixed, and
2. In addition to my wisdom teeth having been extracted, I also had several permanent teeth removed when I was a kid because my mouth was too crowded (and it *still is* even with those teeth gone) and no, I don't want all of those back...
Sigh.
Posted by: KC | June 09, 2024 at 11:31 AM
KC - How often would it work? If you re-grew a tooth and then lost it again in an accident could you grow a third tooth?
Posted by: theQueen | June 10, 2024 at 06:52 AM
If it works by stimulating whatever it is that decides "it's time to grow a tooth" then probably? (I don't understand why it wouldn't re-grow teeth you still already had, though, unless somehow those systems know things...)
(if the injections are into the spot where the tooth should be regrown from, though, then that would provide more control. I don't know.)
Posted by: KC | June 10, 2024 at 10:44 AM
KC - and how does it know to stop? Why not grow through your upper palate?
Posted by: theQueen | June 10, 2024 at 01:32 PM
I mean, I don't know how growing teeth works to begin with, so if they have just gotten the hang of poking the switch that says "hey, jaw, this kid is 11, time to grow tooth [18b]" then presumably no problems? But: again: no idea how growing teeth works to begin with.
(I have sometimes wished we had rodent teeth that just replace themselves lengthwise, but it'd be Yet Another Maintenance Item.)
Posted by: KC | June 11, 2024 at 11:03 AM
KC - Yes, you would need to gnaw on gutters. Nasty
Posted by: theQueen | June 12, 2024 at 08:42 AM