Echoes of Kennedy’s Moon Shot
In 2006, a group of scientists, with a bold ambitious plan, and modeled after President Kennedy’s manned lunar mission program, began laying out the foundations for Dentistry’s Holy Grail: whole human teeth regeneration. Like the NASA space program, the scientists come from a variety of backgrounds and implementing stem cell and engineering biology to tackle the enormous complexity of ontogenesis. Some of the processes involved include: bioreactor reactor grafting, regenerated cap-stage tooth organ, organogenesis inducement, and stem cell odontogenic signaling. The scientists envision a 10 year plan, with a target date of 2017.
The Benefits
Not only would this regenerative procedure make a superior alternative to wearing dentures, but also offer an alternative to the currently popular synthetic dental implants. It would replicate a natural tooth in every way, including full immune system involvement, neural excitement, systematic capillary development, and trauma self-repair.
The Progressive Steps
It is believed that a cap stage regenerated tooth should be realized in 2011, followed by animal trials in 2012, human trials in 2014, clinician training in 2015, and finally released to clinical practice by 2017. The cap-stage implant progressive steps would be as follows
1: Adult stem cell harvesting
2: Cellular culture expansion
3: Scaffold cell seeding
4: Cellular signaling to induce odontogenic tissue
5: Ontogenesis gene expression profiling
6: Repeating the above steps to conclude cap-stage cellular expressed gene associated ontogenesis.
Conclusion
Ontogenesis and the technology to grow replacement teeth, would mean the end of life long suffering for denture wearers. Living teeth would be superior and far more preferable to dentures, in the fact that they are responsive to human bites, as well as promoting optimal health for surrounding teeth and gums. In Japan and other countries, successful animal trials on mice with full root development have set the stage for human trials in the very near future, and the prospect for yet, another shining epic achievement for the field of regenerative medicine.