Over two decades ago implants changed the face of dentistry that is in the way we treat patients forever. Now we�re in the forefront of another tremendous breakthrough that of growing new teeth and reversing periodontal disease from our own cells!!!

As a dentist we have had three options for replacing one or more missing teeth, that of surgery (implants), a fixed bridge or a removable denture. We will soon have a fourth, more natural alternative to replacing lost teeth as well as treating other dental diseases.

This is a timely addition to our armamentarium as our population is living much longer and stem cells will help maintain their quality of life.

Researchers from Boston�s Forsyth Institute, Mass. General Hospital and Federal University of San Paulo in Brazil have a common goal, to replace lost or missing teeth by growing new ones in the patients jaw from their own cells. Their ability to regenerate tooth crowns in rats, pigs and mice, have given them hope for similar success in humans. According to Pamela Yelick, PhD of the Forsyth Institute it will be determined within a year whether present methods used to grow teeth in animals will be useful in regenerating human teeth. She went on to say if these methods prove effective it will be at least seven years before they can be tested clinically in humans.

According to an online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

U.S. and Australian scientists have isolated a distinct type of stem cell from baby teeth lost by 7 and 8 year olds. Compared to adult dental and bone marrow stem cells, these baby teeth cells proliferated more quickly.

In addition scientists at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research have isolated stem cell for the first time from the periodontal ligament of extracted wisdom teeth. This ligament surrounds the root of a tooth and connects it to the bone retaining the tooth in the jaw. All too commonly it is the degeneration or breakdown of these connective fibers contained in the ligament that causes periodontal disease and eventual tooth loss. When Dr. Shi of the Institute transplanted stem cells from laboratory cultures to thirteen mice eight produced a dense, differentiated mixture of cementum (part of tooth embedded in the jaw bone) and periodontal ligament cells including fibers that connect the tooth to bone holding them in place.

The theory is to take the periodontal ligament from our extracted wisdom teeth and bank them for future regenerative treatment for periodontal disease later in life.

Stem cell colonies from both dental pulp (nerve) tissue and periodontal ligament seem to replicate well and proliferate rapidly.

Best wishes,