- Don Ruch
- Ramona, CA
- United States
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Regenerating human teeth?
I just got back from the oral surgen this afternoon, I had a broken molar and had to have it extracted. As you can imagine the experience was traumatic, from the needle stuck into my gums 4 times to numb the area, to the tooth having to be pried out in peices. now I have the choice of dental implants in my future or eating softer foods. My question is if sharks can regenerate teeth why cant we? Now I agree that a human with rows of sharp teeth would be a scary picture not to mention how would you floss? The idea comes from the fact that we started out with baby teeth, right? We loose the baby teeth by the permanent teeth disolving the baby teeth roots and esentialy pushing the baby teeth out. Maybe some studys could shed light on this possibitity?
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Mark Trent 10+
My wife is a Dentist and researcher so I spend quite a bit of time talking about teeth...whether I like to or not. I believe the answer to your question is partially due to the design of human teeth vs. other species teeth. Depending upon the species use of the teeth drives the way the teeth have evolved or were designed (depending upon your religious positions). In short, some species such as rabbits must have regenerating teeth simply due to their use. They are used for processing very highly abrasive compounds vs. what a human might eat. So, if they did not regenerate, the rabbit would need dentures in a few months. Conversely, humans simply cannot process the compounds that a rabbit can so the teeth were destined to be a somewhat singular attribute that grows to a fixed state and is consistent for the remainder of the human life (depending upon care and maint.)
Your question spawns an interesting thought though...could we through genetic manipulation cause teeth to regrow. I believe the answer to that is yes. But, it would take serious genetic manipulation to pull it off. This could also be dangerous simply because some of the genes that drive teeth growth also impact skeletal growth. So trying to manipulate tooth regrowth could possibly trigger dangerous other growths we would not want.
An interesting concept to contemplate for a bio-geneticist.
Very Best Regards,
Mark Trent