There has been numerous articles in yellow press recently about scientist trying to force human teeth regrow, like those of a crocodile.
In case you didn’t know, a crocodile has a permanent tooth and a basic replacement tooth under it, and a stem cell under that replacement tooth. Then the permanent tooth is lost, the backup tooth goes up to replace it, the stem cell evolves into another replacement tooth, and a new cell is formed. So there always is a permanent supply of replacement teeth under the current ones, and alligators can replace their teeth up to 50 times.
A similar process happens in humans when baby teeth are replaced by permanent ones, with one significant caveat: no stem cell is formed, so basically we have only 2 sets of teeth, not 50 like a croc.
What scientist try to achieve is to place that stem cell so it can evolve into a natural tooth to replace rotten on missing ones. They hope to make dentist trip obsolete, but I got a question here – who is going to inject the stem cell under the tooth and how much will it cost? Will average John or Jane be able to routinely afford it?
Anyway, I don’t care, because I opt out this technology.
With all my love to default organs and tissues, teeth are obviously not one of them. I hate natural teeth – they darken, rot, they smell, they make you feel a lot of pain. I’ve never been so happy with teeth until I got my first implant. I only have one, but I already wish all my teeth were implants to forget all nightmare and pain associated with natural teeth.
Anyway, back to the topic. Right now I’m pulling out my wisdom teeth, which are number 8 on the four sides, four of them in total. My didn’t grow up but grew sideways instead, constantly pressuring number 7, until it broke and that’s why I had to go implant in the first place.
That’s basically how all of my 8 teeth grow. They do not go up, there is flesh and bone above them so they’ve never seen light. But they form a cavity near the 7 tooth root, an ideal place for bacteria growth since this cavity sucks in food from the mouth when you chew. My dentist said there was a constant rotting spot for years. Then they were pulled out, I finally felt relaxed in this part of bone. That light pain I felt there and considered to be normal was not normal in the end of the day.
But one of upper 8 teeth was had roots so deep, that it took about 2 hours to pull it out. When finally removed, it damaged the membrane between the mouth and Highmore antrum. So now I’m suffering from severe pain and highmoritis with extremely bad smelling bogeys for over 10 days already, and I still have to wait with this membrane restores and the antibiotics kill the bacteria.
Pulling out 7 and 8 teeth has by far the most painful procedures in my life.
And now imagine this process is constant. Whenever you get a problem with any of your tooth, you just initiate extraction and that stem-cell tooth replacement. Look how this process already happens in children by studying this skull of a child who died while permanent teeth were still going out.
Dreadful isn’t it? Now imagine that technology is reality. You will have constant pain, constant highmoritis, your teeth will be all different shape, color and height. And they will still ache, break and rot!
No thanks. I stick to implants.