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When I was 12 I lost my front teeth before my first communion. My mum took me to the dentist that day and ask him if adult teeth can re-grow. Dentist seeing my

When I was 12 I lost my front teeth before my first communion. My mum took me to the dentist that day and ask him if adult teeth can re-grow. Dentist seeing my mum desperation said that in very rare cases it could be possible. I got implants obviously as my adult teeth never re-grow. The implants look so real and nicer that the original ones. I wonder how this process would look like and how long the new teeth take to grow.

hwillis 6y ago
> I wonder how this process would look like and how long the new teeth take to grow. It's a long, long way off- I can't understate how much you would not want to try this on yourself yet. It's far more likely you'll see gene therapy cures for lactose intolerance and things like that first. Currently the procedure shares a lot of risks with an organ transplant. Autoimmune disorders, months or years of medication with dangerous complications, long-lasting or permanent changes to your endocrine system and hormones. The best case is you get a new tooth that is malformed, misaligned and highly vulnerable to decay. The worst case is that your jaw dissolves and you're on immunosupressants + prophylactics for the rest of your life and you die 20 years early from pneumonia. So... there are some bugs to work out. If they do work it out, it'll probably look like either a weekly/monthly injection or a tiny implant. You might need invisalign afterwards, and you might need to have the old tooth pulled first. Risks will probably be quite low, but the process is long and complex enough that it might only be for exceptional circumstances. It will probably be much better than total dental replacement, maybe better than a single implant, but probably not better than a crown. Personally I'm most excited for the possibility of a third set of teeth for later-life people who would otherwise need dentures or who just have to suffer from tooth pain.

hwillis 6y ago

> I wonder how this process would look like and how long the new teeth take to grow. It's a long, long way off- I can't understate how much you would not want to try this on yourself yet. It's far more likely you'll see gene therapy cures for lactose intolerance and things like that first. Currently the procedure shares a lot of risks with an organ transplant. Autoimmune disorders, months or years of medication with dangerous complications, long-lasting or permanent changes to your endocrine system and hormones. The best case is you get a new tooth that is malformed, misaligned and highly vulnerable to decay. The worst case is that your jaw dissolves and you're on immunosupressants + prophylactics for the rest of your life and you die 20 years early from pneumonia. So... there are some bugs to work out. If they do work it out, it'll probably look like either a weekly/monthly injection or a tiny implant. You might need invisalign afterwards, and you might need to have the old tooth pulled first. Risks will probably be quite low, but the process is long and complex enough that it might only be for exceptional circumstances. It will probably be much better than total dental replacement, maybe better than a single implant, but probably not better than a crown. Personally I'm most excited for the possibility of a third set of teeth for later-life people who would otherwise need dentures or who just have to suffer from tooth pain.