I’ve been excitedly telling my doctors that this is possibly on the horizon. And I make sure to point out there’s a real pubmed article with an actual picture of a ferret in it that has a little extra tooth grown in. Most are surprised but excited when I talk about it.

It’s absolutely not pie in the sky like so many things seem, it literally worked on a mammal already.

I mean, just think of what it was like for teeth to come in when you were a kid. Or wisdom teeth coming in.

I think we can deal with going through that process again. It’s not unfamiliar to anyone, after all, we all lived through it at least once or twice growing up.

This is my thought, and why I really want to know what needs to still exist for this technology to be viable before I decide on if I want a molar pulled.

The article seems to imply the drug works on a dormant bud of a 3rd set of teeth that mammals have but which don’t normally develop into teeth…but I don’t know how accurate that is. Do you really need the original tissue with the bud, or is possible to encourage ordinary gum or bone cells at a location to turn into a bud that this technology then works on?

Definitely will have implications on how it’s best to go about with tooth extractions and implants for anyone hoping this tooth technology will mature within their lifetimes.

I’m young enough that it’s very possible with this research that my cohort will be the first group of seniors that never get dentures, but instead get new teeth grown. And my hope that it will become like Lasik was for eyes–commonplace enough that little tooth-regrowing clinics pop up everywhere. Like, I know it’s popular to think only the richest will be able to afford it…but a part of me suspects the sheer number of poor people who will clamor for this will mean they can make their profit in quantity rather than charging huge prices to rich people. Poor people are more likely to lose teeth, after all. There’s more of a demand for this technology among that demographic.