6 ms·

I am in such wonder why that teeth care and treatment is still not advanced enough, the main approach of treating cavities are still fillings, which I find it a

I am in such wonder why that teeth care and treatment is still not advanced enough, the main approach of treating cavities are still fillings, which I find it a brutal operation.

mikepurvis 5y ago
How wild would it be if you got a cavity and they just pulled the whole tooth and stimulated your body to grow a new one? That would completely upend orthodontics too, if there was an option to regrow crooked teeth rather than yanking them into position with wires.
- Keyframe 5y ago
  Not sure how since you are born with both baby and adult teeth.
  - EForEndeavour 5y ago
    The holy grail of dental care would be to trick the body into growing extra adult teeth from scratch.
- withinboredom 5y ago
  IIRC, you need years of growing to get new teeth. This is certainly viable if you lose all of them at a young age from a car crash but for a single cavity, doubtful.
- carapace 5y ago
  Not only regrowing whole teeth, it should be possible to reengage the cells that build the teeth in the first place to repair cavities. All the "machinery" is there, it's a matter of figuring out how to reactivate it. As for crooked teeth, it seems to me that Levin et. al. are unlocking the patterns that govern such things, and we can hopefully look forward to even jaws and even correcting deformed bone structures. It's interesting to try to think about what form a machine would take for "re-imprinting" new skeletal structures into existing bones, eh?
- Hitton 5y ago
  I think that orthodontics would be an area where it would be often quite useless, because usually it's not just about moving the teeth, it's about changing shape and alignment of jaws to get enough space for the teeth.
- bbddg 5y ago
  Getting a tooth pulled is a much much worse procedure than a simple filling. I'd probably opt for 100 fillings before signing up for getting a tooth pulled.
  - serf 5y ago
    exactly the opposite experience here. the grinding/taste/vibration/experience of a filling is much worse for me than the experience of an extraction. I don't know if that's rare or not -- but I have a very real aversion to the experience of dental grinding equipment, and that stuff tends not to get used much if at all during extractions.
xen2xen1 5y ago
The only real thing I remember from a certain SciFi book is a guy who's "First genetic hack was to regrow his teeth every 20 years." that seems entirely plausible.
paulpauper 5y ago
because teeth are small and delicate and decay, break, and die easily. Livers are big, sturdy, and regenerate.
BrandoElFollito 5y ago
This is what I wonder as well. I imagine some kind of gel that would react with the cavity to build some indestructible filling without any mecanical intervention.

I am in such wonder why that teeth care and treatment is still not advanced enough, the main approach of treating cavities are still fillings, which I find it a brutal operation.

mikepurvis 5y ago

How wild would it be if you got a cavity and they just pulled the whole tooth and stimulated your body to grow a new one? That would completely upend orthodontics too, if there was an option to regrow crooked teeth rather than yanking them into position with wires.

Keyframe 5y ago
Not sure how since you are born with both baby and adult teeth.
- EForEndeavour 5y ago
  The holy grail of dental care would be to trick the body into growing extra adult teeth from scratch.
withinboredom 5y ago
IIRC, you need years of growing to get new teeth. This is certainly viable if you lose all of them at a young age from a car crash but for a single cavity, doubtful.
carapace 5y ago
Not only regrowing whole teeth, it should be possible to reengage the cells that build the teeth in the first place to repair cavities. All the "machinery" is there, it's a matter of figuring out how to reactivate it. As for crooked teeth, it seems to me that Levin et. al. are unlocking the patterns that govern such things, and we can hopefully look forward to even jaws and even correcting deformed bone structures. It's interesting to try to think about what form a machine would take for "re-imprinting" new skeletal structures into existing bones, eh?
Hitton 5y ago
I think that orthodontics would be an area where it would be often quite useless, because usually it's not just about moving the teeth, it's about changing shape and alignment of jaws to get enough space for the teeth.
bbddg 5y ago
Getting a tooth pulled is a much much worse procedure than a simple filling. I'd probably opt for 100 fillings before signing up for getting a tooth pulled.
- serf 5y ago
  exactly the opposite experience here. the grinding/taste/vibration/experience of a filling is much worse for me than the experience of an extraction. I don't know if that's rare or not -- but I have a very real aversion to the experience of dental grinding equipment, and that stuff tends not to get used much if at all during extractions.

xen2xen1 5y ago

The only real thing I remember from a certain SciFi book is a guy who's "First genetic hack was to regrow his teeth every 20 years." that seems entirely plausible.

paulpauper 5y ago

because teeth are small and delicate and decay, break, and die easily. Livers are big, sturdy, and regenerate.

BrandoElFollito 5y ago

This is what I wonder as well. I imagine some kind of gel that would react with the cavity to build some indestructible filling without any mecanical intervention.