{"id":1117,"date":"2013-05-14T19:57:39","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T19:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mikemalonedds.com\/blog1\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2019-08-01T15:45:57","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T15:45:57","slug":"why-can-alligators-grow-teeth-but-not-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.camelliadds.com\/blog1\/why-can-alligators-grow-teeth-but-not-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Can Alligators Grow Teeth, But Not Us?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have been fantasizing about finding a way to grow back human teeth for years now.<\/p>\n

This ability would not just help those unfortunates who undergo a tooth pulling, but it also would make dentures obsolete.\u00a0 Growing teeth is preferable to dentures or dental implants<\/a> as they \u201ccannot reproduce a natural root structure. Also friction from eating and other jaw movement can cause the bone around the implant to wear away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, there\u2019s been progress towards this goal.\u00a0 A team of scientists<\/a> at King\u2019s College London were successful in engineering \u201chybrid human-mouse teeth coated in enamel with developing roots.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, researchers have found a population of cells that could be injected into the human jaw as a \u2018seed\u2019 to grow back teeth.\u00a0 As exciting as this is, there are many obstacles in the way of making this denture-replacing dream a reality — including a 10-15 year wait.<\/p>\n

Back in the United States, researchers are working hard in competition with British scientists.\u00a0 A study was just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em><\/a> revealing the findings of researchers at the University of Southern California led by Cheng Ming Chuong.\u00a0 His team is trying to discover why alligators have the ability to grow back their teeth where humans cannot.<\/p>\n

Many animals have strong regenerative powers.\u00a0 Some salamanders and lizards can grow back limbs; lobsters and crabs grow new claws; starfish grow back appendages; sharks and alligators can grow back teeth.\u00a0 So why are humans lacking in regenerative properties?<\/p>\n

Chuong says<\/a> we aren\u2019t entirely lacking — humans have the ability to regenerate hair many times throughout our lifespans.\u00a0 As far as our teeth, alligators and humans are very alike in that when a mature tooth falls out, another one replaces it.\u00a0 But when the second tooth falls out, alligators have a stem cell that becomes a replacement tooth where humans have none.\u00a0 Alligators are in fact able to repeat this process of growing their teeth in sets of three.\u00a0 Chuong says \u201cthe DNA of humans contains the genetic material necessary to grown teeth and even regenerate other parts of the body, but that code isn’t turned on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humans overall have fewer stem cells than primitive animals — instead, we have more specialized cells.\u00a0 Chuong believes that one day scientists will be able to inject hormones that will stimulate tooth growth in humans.<\/p>\n

It seems like the Brits are ahead of us<\/a> on that one–they\u2019re already hard at work putting together a formula for a tooth-growing hormone!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr. Mike Malone<\/a>\u00a0and his\u00a0team<\/a>\u00a0practice expert cosmetic dentistry in Lafayette, LA. Dr. Malone is the former president and current accredited member of the\u00a0American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry<\/a>. He\u00a0is also the official Cosmetic Dentist of the Miss Louisiana USA and Miss Louisiana Teen USA pageants. Check out his\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists have been fantasizing about finding a way to grow back human teeth for years now. This ability would not just help those unfortunates who undergo a tooth pulling, but  Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":1118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[327],"tags":[332,334,23,328,330,26,335,69,333,331,329],"class_list":{"0":"post-1117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dentistry","8":"tag-alligators","9":"tag-animals","10":"tag-dental-health","11":"tag-dentistry-2","12":"tag-dentures","13":"tag-dr-mike-malone","14":"tag-growing-teeth","15":"tag-health","16":"tag-regenerative-properties","17":"tag-stem-cells","18":"tag-teeth","19":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nWhy Can Alligators Grow Teeth, But Not Us? - A Blog with a Bite...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.camelliadds.com\/blog1\/why-can-alligators-grow-teeth-but-not-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Can Alligators Grow Teeth, But Not Us? - A Blog with a Bite...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scientists have been fantasizing about finding a way to grow back human teeth for years now. 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