World’s 1st drug to regrow teeth enters clinical trials

alphacyberranger@sh.itjust.works to World News@lemmy.world – 917 points –
World’s 1st drug to regrow teeth enters clinical trials - National | Globalnews.ca
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Me IRL after overdosing

im sure this won't end up with manmade horrors beyond my comprehension

have you heard about teratomas? I think that's exactly what you're thinking of, except it's natural

I mean those are weird enough but I'm sure someone's gonna chug a bottle of whatever this stuff is made of and end up looking like a biblically accurate tooth fairy

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Cool now please help me regrow my gums so my teeth don't fall out.

First help me regrow my jaw so my gums don’t fall out.

gum disease is no joke. It'll take your gums and jawbone. Wish someone would help us out.

Teeth have always kind of struck me as something we could eventually not just replace or regrow and make as good as new, but actually replace with something better.

Teeth are, by their nature, subject to a lot of wear and tear, corrosive environments, have a lot of nooks and crannies that need to be cleaned regularly, etc.

How fucking cool would it be to have some sort of cyborg teeth made of some material that won't wear down, is more corrosion resistant, stronger than your natural teeth, etc? You could use your teeth as a bottle opener with impunity, or do everything else your parents always warned you not to do with your teeth.

I'm certainly no doctor or material scientist to suggest what the ideal tooth replacement material would be, but imagine having some kind of titanium alloy super teeth that would never wear down, corrode, or get cavities no matter what kind of neglect or abuse you subject them to, and are purposely engineered for easier flossing, may e even more efficient biting and chewing. Sure, the Jaws look isn't everyone's aesthetic, but some of us might consider it a worthwhile trade-off.

In the meantime though, this is damn cool if it pans out.

The problem there is that the teeth are supported by the jaw bones.

We've had dental implants for the past 2 decades that are pretty indestructible as you describe. The only problem is the jaw bones you drill into aren't that robust. Especially when you start putting multiple holes in it to hold the teeth. So the jaw bone part of the implant tends to fail after about a decade or two, even when the tooth part of it is still plenty robust.

Which frankly is the same problem faced by all proposed cybernetic implants/augmentations. The cybernetic part can be as indestructible as you want, but the organics its attached to are comparatively fragile.

I guess we'll just have to replace all the organic parts

Why waste time with crude matter when we could just be pure energy?

I, for one, intend on becoming a Cyberghost, should I die resentful enough to cause a curse of undeath.

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Yeah and those implants are no joke in strength

Trigger Warning: true story of workplace injury involving a coworker and his teeth.

::: spoiler It's light on injury descriptions at least

One of my coworkers a few months ago had a 200lbs roll of aluminum fall on his head. His implant collided with 3 teeth above it and blew those up.

He's mostly recovered at this point from the whole ordeal (concussion, smashed fingers, etc.) he's just waiting on the bone grafts to heal up for the replacement teeth that are going in.

And yes he got lucky that the roll mostly glanced off of him towards the front. Had he gotten hit straight on top of the head (or it glanced towards the back) he likely would have broken his neck or died.

:::

Jesus H. Christ.

I'm glad your colleague got away with fairly minor injuries.

I bet the OSHA department is having a hell of a time now.

Honestly blew my mind that he walking the next time I saw him

Oh yeah our safety department threw a fit especially when they found out that he was not wearing a hardhat

The last paragraph has a Mechanicus ring to it lmao

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Man's out here with the monocrystalline-corundum-coated titanium based tooth implants

The jaws look would be so cool but imagine if you accidentally bit your cheek while chewing gum or something.

Natural teeth attached to the jaw will always be better than any artificial alternative. Moreso now because they can be regrown.

I don't really follow teeth stuff but don't we already have teeth replacements today?

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Finally I can get my vagina dentata.

This is a good point. It says it will grow teeth, it doesn't say where.

Im fine with that. Ill never need the poop knife again once my anal chompers come in.

I guess if you like using poop for playdough... things would turn into a spaghetti press really quick...

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If we learn how to regrow teeth, I wonder if we'll learn how to regrow bones after that.

Soon we’ll be farming volunteer humans for bone marrow stew. Sign up, have several bones removed—femur, tibia, you name it—and cracked open for that sweet juicy marrow. Then a steady supply of bone growing pills to start the process all over again.

This is basically the plot to The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, minus the volunteering portion

Let’s be honest, once you get the taste for marrow stew the no volunteering part is merely an obstacle.

Seeing as teething babies cry a lot, I wonder how painful this process will be.

I had some "teething" as my wisdom teeth came in. It's painful, and causes a fever, but babies have no understanding of why they are in pain, and no way to deal with it. As an adult, it's not fun, but it's manageable and much less scary.

That's because their teeth are busting through their fleshy gums. Presumably this would be growing out an existing hole.

Dare ya to search "baby teeth skull".

Have you had your wisdom teeth grow? I figure this would be the same. With mine it wasn't a particularly pleasant experience, but it wasn't too bad either - and if it's the same with that new treatment, I'd be willing to take the pain over the alternative of staying toothless when I grow old.

Are you supposed to be able to feel wisdom teeth growing? Cause when I got mine there wasn’t any pain

I guess that ideally you don't feel anything at all, but I've heard from a few people that there was some itchiness and irritation, which mirrors my experience, so...

Fortunately didn’t get any of that. Just accidentally biting my inner cheeks with them as they grew.

Less painful than looking at yourself every day in the mirror and staring at your with missing teeth...

Crying isn't always about pain. Babies can't talk and don't have the capacity to realize what's going on. A lot of their crying can simply be chalked up to the frustration of not being able to communicate, not necessarily from pain.

Never flossing again.

Wonder if we could somehow plan for them to grow in straight?

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That's pretty awesome for some folks - my uncle had three sets of teeth, so the last set was extremely brittle. I'm curious if calcium supplements and this drug could provide an alternative to dentures.

Did you say your uncle had a third set of natural grown teeth? I always assumed everyone had two sets only.

No, some people have a complete third set. Some people only have a partial third set, or even have third teeth in just a few positions within the mouth. A dentist who told me about this said it's a little rare, but not super rare.

Yes, they came in in his thirties, which was like 40-50 years ago. It hasn't happened to anyone else in the family thankfully, though he himself never had kids.

I have a friend that recently showed me his third set of teeth coming in about a centimeter below where his regular teeth grew in.

If at all possible make sure your friend is talking to a dentist or orthodontist about that - they may need calcium supplements.

And it will cost me a kidney !

Only if you're American and can pay 15k, the rest of us will wait 5 years.. Have our appointment cancelled wait 4 more and by the time we're assessed they will tell us we waited to long and there is nothing they can do for us.

It took them 6 years to take my gallbladder out even with it causing horrid pain... I mean covid did happen in the middle but still diagnosed 2016 and surgery is 2021 is kind of fucked by any standards.

As far as I know, no national health systems cover cosmetic dental work.

Certainly both in the UK and in Portugal I always had to pay for it from my own pocket.

Mind you, neither of those countries has anywhere near US prices even for private healthcare.

This is for congenital lack of teeth. not for people who have had their teeth removed.

That appears to be the current goal, but it still looks like the phase-1 will be on healthy adults which is pretty creepy to imagine!

Not really. The research papers mention an interaction between an antibody and a gene that controls tooth growth in both humans and mice. If that gene is supressed, there is no tooth growth.

However, every tooth you can ever grow, or at least the embryonal tissue for it, is already present at birth. There is no way to get more, and activating this gene would not give you additional tissue to develop into new teeth.

So are they only looking at safety and toxicity in this trial, and not expecting to see additional tooth growth?

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Not yet, but it could potentially lead to further innovations in that regard.

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I could be crazy but I swear I've heard this a number of times before. It always seemed wonderful as my teeth tend to self-destruct. But nothing ever seems to come from it.

It would be nice if we just naturally grew a new set every 10 years or so but people with strong teeth would be quite annoyed at that especially if they had to do alignment.

Honestly I was hoping crispr would take off more than it actually did come because I'd love to splice myself with the jeans of a shark and just get better teeth every time I lose a tooth

That would be amazing.. imagine face planting from a stupid stunt and being like no biggie they'll grow back. Works for kids and we already know from admittedly gross tumors the human body can grow hair and teeth. Just have to get them in the right place.

Also agree with the other comment to your post.. crispr will likely be for the rich. Hell, it probably already is. A cynical view but i don't sit at that table so who knows.

And they shall call you The Denim Reefer

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I've worked in dental in the past (assistant) and my brother has been sending me these types of articles since I started back in 2004. I always say something like "wild" or "amazing" but really NOTHING ever comes of it so I stopped actually reading what he sends me. It's just a waste of time.

I'll believe it when I see it

Thank you for confirming I'm not crazy. At least in that aspect. And also, as someone who has spent an insane amount of hours in that chair thank you for being a DA and dealing with us.

My wifes nieces and nephew all had something (DNA? stem cells? Not sure, cant remember) taken by someone in the family who is working on this science to regrow teeth. He doesn't seem to think its too far off last time i spoke to him.

I didn't mean to imply it wasn't possible. I have a relative that works for ITER. And similarly it's possible but not in my lifetime i imagine.

It might seem silly to relate the 2 but it's just a feeling.. major applicable innovation seems lacking.

Also waiting on sodium-ion or glass batteries as well.

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Okay. I had a broken tooth removed and replaced with a titanium implant. What would happen to me if I took this drug?

Your bio-engineered tooth and cybernetic tooth would have to battle to the death.

Marvel could probably squeeze 3 main line entries and 5 side line ones. Maybe even an origin story comic book.

Like pokemon vs digimon, just in your mouth?

Super excited for this. One of my adult teeth just never grew in. I tried to get an implant, but the lack of tooth also resulted in too little bone there to support the implant. I'm hopeful this would eventually allow me to have a real tooth there instead of my very fragile bridge.

This is absolutely amazing! I have oligodontia myself and just the thought of being able to actually get those teeth back is pretty cool! I already have 3 implants - still have 8 more to go - but placing them HURTS... would be pretty interesting to see how far they're in a couple of years.

Looking forward to seeing this. It may not benefit me, hut I hope it benefits the future.

Well look at this person humble bragging their healthy set of teeth!

I have a bridge, so... no teeth there. Lol. They aren't sure if it'll work for people like me.

This picture was the first thing that came to mind.

https://i.imgur.com/uhiMrxr.jpg

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I'm thinking there are going to be very interesting developments in the years to come. So many things that were considered immutable constants about life may change.

Ive had a couple of teeth removed.

Wonder how this will work.. can they regrew 1 tooth in a specific spot?

So…. Anybody else feel this is…..

I dunno… weird?

Nah, this is progress. Why wouldn't I want to be able to grow my teeth back?

I mean, yes. It's amazing.

Still weird. I guess I'm stuck on the whole... adults teething issues.

Eh, as long as you don't get all your teeth knocked out at once, or are old and completely toothless when you get treated, it shouldnt be much of a problem. But yeah, weird thought.

Only because it's paradigm shifting and worldview shattering.

"Only baby teeth grow back, and if you lose your adult teeth you're fucked, enjoy your dentures."

Don't worry though, you probably have a few decades to realign your worldview. 9/10 of clinical trials fail.

Yeah, I'd like to know if they can stop the treatment again. Wouldn't want to have teeth everywhere.

So, it sounds like the drug basically prevents certain things that normally halt tooth growth- which would be problematic as we're not constantly loosing teeth.