May 26, 2010

Regrowing Teeth

This is a pretty cool technology that should be hitting the market in the next couple of years (barring extreme nanny state bullshit):

Dr. Jeremy Mao, the Edward V. Zegarelli Professor of Dental Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, has unveiled a growth factor-infused, three-dimensional scaffold with the potential to regenerate an anatomically correct tooth in just nine weeks from implantation. By using a procedure developed in the university's Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, Dr. Mao can direct the body's own stem cells toward the scaffold, which is made of natural materials. Once the stem cells have colonized the scaffold, a tooth can grow in the socket and then merge with the surrounding tissue.

Dr. Mao's technique not only eliminates the need to grow teeth in a Petri dish, but it is the first to achieve regeneration of anatomically correct teeth by using the body's own resources. Factor in the faster recovery time and the comparatively natural process of regrowth (as opposed to implantation), and you have a massively appealing dental treatment.

Awesome.  Now, get moving on similar technology for organs.  My favorite part of the huge stem cell argument was that those opposed to fetal stem cells were saying, "there's got to be another way" and a bunch of closed-minded people said, "impossible!" 

There were, in fact, many better ways.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 11:12 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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