My Shiny Teeth and Me

Truly this is something that is amazing. Teeth, once lost, do not grow back. Hence extra teeth, the wisdom teeth, developed evolutionarily to help replace those lost either due to damage or lack of calcium.

This new drug will hit human clinical trials in 2024 and if successful will completely change the dental industry as a whole. Participants in the study have been identified as people born with tooth agenesis (a congenital absence of one or more teeth - unfortunately this is a generic condition where missing teeth are unavoidable). When rats with the same disorder were studied, scientists found that when a specific gene was blocked, other genes that prevent the proteins that allow the test subjects to grow new teeth. Once the gene was blocked, the rats with agenesis were able to grow new teeth, so there is hope for people who are lacking teeth in the near future.

While the anatomy of rat teeth is slightly different from humans, rats that are missing teeth at the root are unable to regrow them much like a human missing a tooth. We have specified the root because rat molars do continue to grow as they get older and either have to be ground down on foods or hard materials such as rocks or bars. In addition, rats are born with the teeth they are going to have instead of having two sets of teeth like humans. No, people don't have two rows of teeth, that is simply a reference to baby teeth- rats do not have baby teeth and are born with their permanent teeth. In terms of cost and scalability, there is not much information on that yet, however we are not surprised since the success has only been on rats and human trials are yet to run.

In the event that the human trials show some success, this discovery could greatly impact both the dental and pharmaceutical industries. The dental industry would be impacted for obvious reasons, especially if this solution is something that can be mass produced cheaply that eliminates the need for products like veneers if the new teeth grow in at a healthy strength. The pharmaceutical industry would potentially be hit harder; think about all of the over the counter and prescription medications that exist to help with tooth pain and to fight tooth decay. It will be interesting to watch as this solution develops, especially if it is successful in the human trials next year.

Arbitrage Trade Assist trades for you while you sleep. Check it out today at http://arbitragetrade.com