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Comment by bailoon | Hacker News Reader

Is there any company working on "cloning" or growing teeth? That way we don't have to worry about cavities or root canal any longer? When I was a kid, I was sure we'd have this tech by now. How hard is it to grow teeth?

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It seems like I've been hearing for the last 40 years that tooth-re-growing tech was just around the corner, and in five years none of us would have to worry about dental problems anymore.

Still waiting.

Soon I'm going to have to break down and buy a toothbrush.

Seems like we've been able to grow human teeth in mice and other lab animals for over a decade. How far away can we be from trials in actual humans? I'd sign up without hesitation, even if there were substantial risks.

two things..

1. that flaccid teeth meme

2. sharks teeth

i would be comfortable with having a fresh set of teeth every other year or 3 or 5 years later. It would mean i could be a little bit more lazy and/or not have to "SUFFER". i hate that, the teeth are the worst

I've always half-wondered if wisdom teeth could be saved. Either for re-insertion. Or as the source for the required stem cells for regrowth.

I mean, evolutionarily, the late appearance of those teeth were probably to replace broken molars?

If you get 95% of your calories from hunting you will spend a lot of time chewing tough pieces of meat. Kids who grow up chewing meat and gnawing on bones develop larger and wider jaws (and more attractive faces) and they have space for wisdom teeth.

They often get broken up on removal, from the videos I've watched. So not sure how useful that would be

Can’t just clone them. Gotta grow them in your mouth with stem cells.

So why can’t we do that yet?

Maybe it’s an economic curse. Wealthy people tend to have good teeth. Sure, here and there a cavity. But the bulk of the market for new teeth is probably poor.

Teeth aren’t exactly the top priority but stem cell research could regenerate vital organs. It’s very much an area of active research. It’s just hard.

Only because they tend to have much more aggressive parents about teeth health, going to the dentist, etc. it has nothing to do with being rich, even the lowest 10% in income can afford toothpaste and a toothbrush which you can probably get for free. The problem is that it's low on the list of priorities.

It’s clearly not a simple process with very particular behaviors, but i agree, based on current knowledge of teeth it seems like this should be in reach for humanity.

Even if it was invented it would be super expensive.

There has been some work, nothing commercialized yet that I've heard of:

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/02/dentists-may-soon-comp...

https://www.engadget.com/2016-07-03-regenerative-tooth-filli...

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2016/july/fi...

https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/07/28/0228219

I've seen a report on PubMed about a successful growth of a new replacement tooth from stem cells in a rabbit as well, can't find the link at the moment. This seems to be a summary of a lot of different research on regrowing teeth, and it states up front that only regrowing enamel seems to be on the near horizon:

https://dentalfreak.com/teeth-regeneration-and-regrowth-curr...

It seems SDF was approved for kids 7 or so years ago in the US:

https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/07/18/0057230

SDF is used on the very old a lot also (much easier to use for those with Alzheimer's for example). You can ask for it but not a lot of US dentists have experience applying it or keep it in stock. Some dentists will adamantly refuse to apply it, probably because it reduces their profit since if it stops decay there is no filling needed, though it could also be because it can cause staining in unpredictable places (anywhere with decay, and the gums also) that takes months or years to disappear. In general it would seem the dental profession has no reason to welcome a cure for tooth decay and every reason to delay one. It would not put them them entirely out of business, but it certainly would reduce business.

There have been some other interesting developments in dentistry:

https://munewsarchives.missouri.edu/news-releases/2011/1220-...

https://nanovabio.com/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120104115106.h...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/upshot/surprisingly-littl...

The sterilizing cold plasma torch is already being used in some surgeries I believe.

Good oral hygiene is all that is needed, and (in the UK, at least) we've been mostly failing at this basic level of common sense prevention for eternity.

I guess it's the same for dieting, people looking for magic solutions when the simple answer is to eat less.

Between people looking for magic solutions and other people deriding the masses for being lazy... yeah, not much room left in the field for learning and growth.

I do agree there is something to pushing for a bit more hygiene for things. That said, I also think there is something to be said for looking at the items holistically. To wit, I'm not brushing my pet's teeth every night, and I have yet to ever have one that needed intervention due to cavities. Especially not in mid life. I know some folks that have, of course. So, it isn't like it is completely unheard of in the animal kingdom. I'm curious why it is so different for us, though. Would love to see a good treatment of that topic.

I'm sure you already know that your pets don't consume much sugar and that's the main reason they don't get cavities?

Maybe humans will, eventually, evolve to a state where our teeth renew themselves naturally, without intervention? Who knows?

I mean, you aren't wrong. They also eat a lot of really hard to chew things that scrape at their teeth and gums. And, I'm sure, breeding selected for pets that don't have massive teeth problems.

That is, I get it, very complex topic. You can see other similar "patterns" that are of little help in the animal kingdom. See a "fat" animal, and it is almost certainly one that doesn't eat meat as a primary nutrient source. Similarly, lean animals are typically predators. Would be a fallacy to think you have to be a meat eater to be lean, though.

The topic that has been intriguing to me lately, is the link between mouth breathing and poor oral health. So many topics that we don't know nearly as much about as we want individually. Much less all mixed up together.

Pets get other stuff though. My understanding for cats at least is there's a heavy genetic component. I have two brother cats and one has bad teeth [1] and one has good teeth. But they eat the same and get their teeth brushed the same.

[1] As in, he lost one and needed his teeth cleaned by age 7 (not old). That said, I didn't get into a habit of brushing their teeth until they were several years old, and both of their teeth are excellent now (vet doesn't see either of them as needing a cleaning in the foreseeable future). So dental hygiene is helpful even for cats!

7 is fairly old for cats, I thought? Not ancient old, but well past early life.

I fully agree on it having a hefty genetic component. Pure breed?

My cat is 14 and has never had a cavity and she pretty much just eats high quality dried food along with a bit of canned food every day. Not pure bred, she's a mutt.

Wasn't my intent on that. I was thinking in comparison to elementary school kids. Also just curious, all told.

My expectation would be that mutts have healthier teeth. And general health. That said, that expectation isn't strong enough that counter would shock me.

I'd say it's neither old nor young. I believe it's like the 30s/40s of cats.

My cats are also pretty healthy otherwise - they're even older now and the vet always says she'd believe it if I said they were 5 by their muscle tone etc.

This is what I intended "fairly old" to be. The framing of the article was about grade school kids, so I really just meant well above that age. :D

haha that's fair

I think the gist of all this is "brush your teeth"!

Allot of what most people consume isn't great for teeth. Like coffee (and some teas).

Other animals don't eat nearly as much sugary food, or food of a sort that tends to get stuck in your mouth (non-processed food like corn on the cob can do so, but even that's a product of domestication and not so widely eaten by other animals - our dog loves it, but canine teeth are spaced further apart and shaped in such a way it's less likely for bits to get lodged between them. Also I gather dogs at least have much more powerful anti-bacterial agents in their saliva.)

The food that gets the most stuck in my teeth is meat. Pretty much period. Close second will be stringy vegetables.

Which is to say, you aren't really wrong. But it is clearly more nuanced. I put a longer response to another post. I am not trying to find a single answer here. If we are lucky and there is one, I'm all for it. But, in general, I am very skeptical of many of these simplistic answers.

Meat and stringy stuff gets stuck between teeth, not to teeth. It's the stuff that sticks to the teeth, provides cover and environment for bacteria to grow is (a big part of) the problem. The things that are actually stringy are usually easy to remove. Things that stick to the surface - less so.

The thing that typically gets stuck to teeth even with a good diet are minerals found in saliva.

As someone that doesn't have any cavities, I'm well aware of many of the subtle points. I also am well aware of just how scatter shot so much advice is... And how dominant genetics can be in this.

Celery in my case.

I'd hazard that cooked meat is more likely to have that issue than raw meat. And as another poster pointed out, it's possibly more relevant what food sticks to the outer surface of your teeth, though I'm pretty sure any source of food around your teeth that bacteria can grow on is likely to lead to cavities.

"Other animals"

Most other animals (at least mammals with teeth) don't live as long. Many do suffer from dental issues if untreated. For example, horses may live into their 30s in domestic settings, which include dental care. Wild horses typically live 15-20 years. If they survive other perils, one of the causes of their earlier death can be starvation or malnourishment due to not being able to chew their food.

Yeah. I tried hinting at that in my first post. Pets will have teeth issues as they get older. Much of that comes from nutrition learning, though.

Humans seem particularly prone to midlife tooth issues. With the obvious caveat that humans also are prone to ignorance dominating the things we believe. :)

Sure, but humans often have issues with cavities well before even reaching adulthood.

I think this is a pretty reductive take, both for dental and dieting.

There are a lot of reasons a person might not be able to take care of themselves very well, and we should certainly try to make it easier for them, rather than just dismissing it as a solved problem and a moral failing of anyone who runs into issues.

Good oral hygiene is only fixing one reason for needing replacement teeth. Artificial replacement remains subpar and causes gradual erosion in the jaw that will catch up with people who have accidents early in life.

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