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Since the 1700s, people have assumed that the parts of teeth damaged by cavities were gone for good and that there was nothing to be done. Now, that entire paradigm is changing.
Scientists Kyle Vining and Adam Celiz are changing the field of dentistry by creating a synthetic biomaterial that stimulates stem cells native to your teeth to repair them. That’s right — the substance appears to somehow make that area regenerate pulp tissue and the critical bony material of your tooth known as dentin.
However, this isn’t the first time scientists incorporated stem cells into dental work. In 2013, Ruoxue Feng and Christopher Lengner wrote in a paper on stem cells and dentistry from an economic and practical standpoint. Then, in 2014, Harvard professor David J. Mooney showed that a low-power light might also be able to trigger stem cells into dentin.
“Stem cells are rapidly becoming a focus for the restoration of function and aesthetics in dentistry,” Feng and Lengner wrote. That message continues to ring true even today.
Read full, original post: Could your cavity-filled tooth repair itself with stem cells in the future?
