There are promises and claims filtering out into the digital ethernet about incredible advances in the hardened world of teeth on the near horizon. In particular a video on YouTube entitled “Drug to regrow teeth may be on market by 2030.” This is exciting stuff, but can we believe it or is it hype? Growing back our own natural teeth by 2030 sounds fantastical – but will dental biotechnology deliver? Many of us mere humans have a few gaps of our own ready to be filled in the arches of our natural teeth. Collectively we can be sure we are not alone in wishing for a speedy resolution to an age-old problem such as this.

Drug Trials To Regrow Natural Teeth

Yes, there are implants, now available, to screw in permanent dentures at great expense into existing bone. There is an upsurge in the uptake of this new dental technology happening right now. However, the option to regrow natural teeth seems far more appealing than screwing in false teeth no matter how tremendous they might be. Human beings love second chances and if this biotechnology actually achieved the regrowth of teeth it would be a miraculous feat. Unfortunately, I think there is a long way to go before this happens.

Baby Steps, Baby Teeth & Japanese Dental Determination

The clinical trials for the regrowth of natural teeth is a Japanese good news story. The groundbreaking drug has been developed by scientists at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka. It will begin with children.

“Dr Katsu Takahashi, head of the dentistry and oral surgery department at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital, has been working on the drug since his graduate student days, in the early nineties. “The idea of growing new teeth is every dentist’s dream,” he said to Japanese journal The Mainichi, adding that he was confident he’d be able “to make it happen.”

The groundbreaking dentistry endeavour, supported by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), aims “to deliver a therapeutic drug to patients with congenital edentulism [people wholly or partially toothless] through the cooperation of more than 10 medical institutions and research institutes nationwide,” reads a statement on the clinic’s website.”
– EuroNews

Gobsmackingly Incredible If True & Is Expedited

The clinical trials have begun and the hope is, all going well, that the drug could be available to dentists by 2030. I wonder what it would feel like to regrow teeth? Will it be painful or merely a discomforting experience? Will it reach beyond helping people with anodontia – those with a complete absence of teeth? The life-changing and commercial benefits of a biotechnology like this would be huge.

The Paradoxical Economic Treatment Of Oral Care In Australia

Teeth are a confounding thing in that they often wear out before their owners. Yes, many of us fail to look after them adequately and pay the price. Also true is we have been betrayed by our economies in the food and drink choices they have served up in their bid to make profits. Not only served up but aggressively promoted through advertising to impressionable children. Thinking aloud of soda based soft drinks here – the Cokes, Fantas and the myriad of other sugary drinks. All the candies, sweet snacks and fast foods pushed onto kids during their early years and adolescence. You do not see healthy foods competing for eyeballs on all those screens in terms of the marketing spend. Billions and billions of dollars are spent on big budget ads for sugary foods and drinks targeted at our kids. The oral health of our families pay the price for this unbalanced economic playing field. To top it all off dental care is excluded from Medicare, our universal healthcare insurance scheme. How does it get any better than that?

A Second Chance, Another Bite At Life

Regrowing natural teeth could be a second chance for lots of unhappy people in constant pain with their teeth and gums. It could be a real hallelujah moment around the globe.

“Toregem Biopharma, funded by Kyoto University, has developed an antibody drug which inhibits the protein in the mouth that suppresses growth and stops “tooth buds” from developing. The team has already successfully administered the drug to ferrets, which have both baby and permanent teeth similar to humans, in 2018. Toregem has said “inactivating the USAG-1 protein” allows teeth to grow.”
– ABC.net.au

40 million Americans have no teeth at all! No wonder they are so upset over there in the ‘so-called’ land of the free – where everything costs an arm and a leg or two. The market for this dental wonder drug will be massive. Probably wealthy people over there will grow a double set of teeth like sharks before the poor get a go at growing any teeth.

The Economic Bite Of Dentistry In An Unfair World

So will we truly be growing back our own natural teeth by 2030 – and will dental biotechnology deliver on this far-fetched promise? First up, these things usually end up taking much longer to reach the market than initially predicted. Next, they start out prohibitively expensive and those most in need will be unable to afford the miracle drug. We live in a world where profits for investors ranks much higher than the needs of consumers. Those low on the food chain will be gumming their way through life for longer I reckon. Still, something as potentially life changing as this provides a light on the hill for those living on watery soup. We live in hope, as we get older and age puts the bite on our dreams and aspirations. Folk with no teeth don’t go out as often and barely raise a smile at life. Dentists play an important role in the lives of modern human beings and it will be a good news story if this drug can deliver a second chance for many. Whether you were unlucky with the teeth you were born with in terms of their durability. Whether you were deaf to the naggings of your mother about looking after your teeth. Whether you were in an accident which knocked out your teeth. Whatever your story you deserve a second chance and another bite at life in our books.

The roll out of this Japanese drug for the regrowth of teeth will be followed closely by those on a diet of mush. In a perfect world it should go to children first, as it will make a lengthy difference to their lives. A bit like the lifeboats being reserved for women and children, however, we saw how that went on the Titanic. Wealthy passengers and the crew pushed their way onto the too few boats at the expense of the children in steerage. Heroic stories are, generally, fiction and in dentistry that may well be the same.

Recent Posts On Social Media

@sundaewithsprinkles6506
“I worked in dentistry for over 20 years. Trust me the dentists will lobby to make this process overly complicated, very expensive, and by prescription, by them, only. The majority are very greedy, not concerned with the best interest of the patient, and don’t want to be out of a career.”

@dautube
“The problem is that dental issues are treated as if they’re not part of the body. I don’t know why they’re not included in medical insurance. People not only get sick because of dental problems, but mental health is affected as well.”

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