Rats Are Getting Teeth Re-Implanted With Stem Cells and Same Technology Can Be Used for Replacement Teeth

I guess we have a couple rats now that can smile. If anyone has gum disease or has had dental implants you know what I’m talking about here. If you have an implant, it is a process and you live with small screws that grow into your bone to hold the tooth, I have some of those. With this technique it appears that stem cells can either be useful with putting a tooth back let’s say after an accident or the ability to insert a tooth replacement. I have good gums, but bad teeth, so I need the replacements for sure. Others have great teeth, but the gums can’t hold the teeth. In a related post yesterday, a company received FDA approval for using collagen membrane too and this part stands to strengthen the bone area.

Collagen Matrix Receives FDA 510(k) Clearance for Collagen Dental Membrane–Regenerative Dentistry (Medicine)

Of course using stem cells with rats teeth is the beginning to move this forward for us, the humans. There’s also this technology with growing a tooth too, so it looks like there’s going to be more than one option here with tooth replacement in the near future as the tools and research are lining up. BD

Dental Implants Using Body’s Own Stem Cells To Grow Them – Regenerative Dentistry In the Works

I wonder too on the last link here about the quality of the tooth genes we have too and if we have bad ones, then perhaps the first option might work better if the teeth would grow with cavities. BD

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have successfully used stem cells to reattach molars to tooth sockets within lab rats’ mouths. The stem cells were obtained from the periodontal ligament of molars extracted from mice, expanded in an incubator, and then seeded onto barren rat molars. This could have great implications for humans who lose teeth due to gum disease in the future... and for all those toothless old rats out there.

Two to four months after being placed in the rats’ mouths, the stem cells on the teeth aligned and formed new fibrous attachments between the tooth and bone. The result was firmly attached teeth. Tissue sections indicated that the replanted teeth were surrounded by newly formed, functional periodontal ligament fibers and new cementum, which are both essential to tooth attachment.

Stem cells used to reattach teeth in rats