I’m a freakishly lucky bastard, to date. Also, a freak. I have a fairly gracile jaw for a guy. A bit of a chinless wonder. I have 28 teeth. Always have, since

I’m a freakishly lucky bastard, to date. Also, a freak. I have a fairly gracile jaw for a guy. A bit of a chinless wonder. I have 28 teeth. Always have, since my adult teeth came through - but I do have wisdom teeth. What I don’t have are any M1 molars. They’re just not there. Seems my maternal grandfather and my sister are the same. I’m 35, with so-so at best oral hygiene. Never had a cavity, never had a filling, never needed orthodontics - and really weirdly neither has my grandfather - he’s 86 with a complete and unaltered set of original gnashers. A bit worn down after seven decades, but all still there and working. My mother lost all of hers in a motorbike crash decades ago so there’s no telling there. So - while I think the idea of artificial replacements is a perfectly good one, there should perhaps be some research into pheno/genotypes such as my family’s which seems to have a useful mutation for the incredible shrinking jaw. It’s this sort of thing which could be a valid use of gene editing - it doesn’t really present any advantages other than being able to eat.