Humans May Be Able to Grow New Teeth Within Just 6 Years | Hacker News Reader

Humans May Be Able to Grow New Teeth Within Just 6 Years

popularmechanics.com

41 pointsdp-hackernews23 comments

I'm still waiting to hear about the lozenge that rebuilds enamel. It seems it is now focused on a treatment for sensitive teeth. They popped up 3 years ago but haven't gotten a lot of news about them besides a sprinkle of articles last year.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27328663

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.2c01039

https://dental.washington.edu/trials-begin-on-lozenge-that-r...

fyi there's a cool substance called Nano-hydroxyapatite and there are some toothpastes that contain it and in theory it rebuilds some part of enamel

Adult teeth are present from birth, located deep in the jaw. We imagine our adult teeth grow, but it's everything else that's growing, we grow out and around the adult teeth which were always there from the beginning.

Search for x-ray pictures of children's teeth if you want to see this. It's almost nightmare fuel, but remember it's natural, this is how things are supposed to work, and that chaotic jumble of teeth will sort itself out (if not, orthodontics).

This makes me skeptical that we can just grow teeth out of nothing.

That's not true.

Baby teeth have developed by birth although they don't start to emerge until around 6 months. Adult teeth don't start developing until birth.

I think you're probably right. My point and reason for skepticism still remains though, growing adult teeth is not like fingernails that just grow out of seemingly nothing, it happens deep inside the bone and is deeply connected with the process of growing in general.

I imagine that they do grow in size, though?

I'm having a hard time picturing a full set of my adult sized teeth fitting inside a newborn's skull with room for everything else.

Have you seen the images? [0]

It seems I was only half-correct though, since this page I linked refers to "permanent tooth buds", meaning a part of the adult teeth has formed at an early age, but further growth still happens.

[0]: These are medical images and x-rays, but they may be mildly disturbing: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/9541/is-this-im...

I was born without two adult teeth, so I’ve still got two baby teeth in my 30s. Every dentist appointment the dentist reminds me to call asap if they fall out so they can start the implant process. I always counter with I’m waiting till they can just regrow them.

Next appointment will be fun to chat about this. Would be wild if it was possible even if the teeth weren’t 100% in some way.

"Supernumerary teeth" and "hyperdontia" are real (although rare) conditions. The biological machinery is definitely there, it just needs to be carefully and safely activated.

If a tumour is left to grow for long enough, random body parts can grow in it such as teeth and hair. Therefore, humans definitely have the ability to regenerate teeth. I'm still sceptical that what is being discussed in this article will lead anywhere. We should have laboratory grown tumours and then implant the grown teeth from that.

Also like a mystery box in Mario.

Congratulations on your new ear.

The benefit of growing teeth in-situ would be being firmly embedded in the jawbone and connected to living tissue, neither of which is really possible with implants.

You're thinking of a vanishing twin which isn't necessarily cancerous or a teratoma which is.

Administered intravenously? Im confused as to how this works. How would this result in the growth of a new tooth in the right spot? Does intravenously sometimes mean injected in a specific spot, rather than in the veins near your inner elbow?

> How would this result in the growth of a new tooth in the right spot?

O I'd guess the same way teeth grow in the right spot to begin with. Stem cells somehow "know" (the mechanism wasn't fully understood the last I heard, but perhaps that's changed) where they are located in the body and what they should grow into. That's why you don't see babies with noses on their feet or whatever. Sure, once in a while something goes wrong and you get things growing where they shouldn't, but in most cases that doesn't happen.

> How would this result in the growth of a new tooth in the right spot?

Huh ? Who said anything about the right spot. This will grow the tooth. Just pray that it grows where you need it. /s

Really hope so, I had a root canal filling a few years ago, and my dentist said the filled tooth will probably shatter and fall out in about 10 years. Would be nice if I can just grow it back at that point.

It sounds like it's a package deal, a whole mouth of new teeth (which has downsides and upsides I guess).

Is this about growing the teeth entirely from the 'ground' or about growing already present teeth that for some reasons failed to develop?

Apparently the way teeth stop growing is that something gets switched on and tells the cells that start them to not start new teeth anymore. This blocks that signal, so the cells start growing new teeth.

fascinating, I always thought that we have only two pairs by default and don't have cells to create more of them

Body mod practitioners will discover this technology and, naturally, teeth in earlobes and vagina dentata will eventually be realized.

I wonder if this will be possible for those with root canals. They would need to regrow the nerve.

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