Scientists have grown human teeth in pig jaws for your next dental replacement

At the moment, there are only a few options for dental replacements, such as dentures, titanium implants, or leaving the gap completely blank. But what if you could get lab-grown teeth implanted?

2

Tooth cells being cultured in a lab to create bioengineered teeth

Researchers from the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine have penned a new study published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine that details the process of growing a mix of human and pig tooth cells in pig jaws. The stem cells were implanted in the mandibles, or jaw, of the test pigs and were found to continue to grow, paving the way for a potential new viable method of lab-grown human teeth.

The researchers took cells from the enamel of pig teeth and cells from the dental pulp of human teeth, combined them with other human cells, and placed them on a biodegradable tooth-shaped frame that is constructed of parts of pig teeth. These were then implanted into adult Yucatan minipigs and grown for between 2 and 4 months. After the growth period was completed, the researchers observed "the formation of tooth-like tissues." It should be noted these aren't fully grown human teeth inside a pig, but the beginning foundations of them.

"The resulting bioengineered tooth bud constructs were implanted in the mandibles of adult Yucatan minipigs and grown for 2 or 4 months," wrote Tufts dental researchers Weibo Zhang and Pamela Yelick

"They're not beautifully formed teeth yet. But we're optimistic that one day we will be able to create a functional biological tooth substitute that can get into people who need tooth replacement," said Yelick to MIT Technology Review