The world's first human trial of a drug that can regenerate teeth will begin in a few months, less than a year on from news of its success in animals. This paves the way for the medicine to be commercially available as early as 2030.

The world’s first human trial of a drug that can regenerate teeth will begin in a few months, less than a year on from news of its success in animals. This paves the way for the medicine to be commercially available as early as 2030.

The trial, which will take place at Kyoto University Hospital from September to August 2025, will treat 30 males aged 30-64 who are missing at least one molar. The intravenous treatment will be tested for its efficacy on human dentition, after it successfully grew new teeth in ferret and mouse models with no significant side effects.

“We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,” said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi, head of dentistry and oral surgery at Kitano Hospital. “While there has been no treatment to date providing a permanent cure, we feel that people’s expectations for tooth growth are high.”

Following this 11-month first stage, the researchers will then trial the drug on patients aged 2-7 who are missing at least four teeth due to congenital tooth deficiency, which is estimated to affect 1% of people. The team is recruiting for this Phase IIa trial now.

    • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      5 months ago

      I predict skyrocketing sales of beef jerky. And not that namby-pamby gas station shit that you can bite off with your incisors, the real stuff that you have to chew for 2 hours to soften enough to swallow.

  • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.works
    36·
    5 months ago

    Yussss! Finally I will have the ferret teeth I have dreamed of for so long, and the world will be mine for the taking!

    Seriously though, since getting my first filling, I have dreamed of being able to regrow teeth! What an age we live in!

    • CeeBee@lemmy.world
      91·
      5 months ago

      A process called rapid recalcification has existed for almost a decade. I don’t understand why it hasn’t made its way into dentistry yet.

      • Promethiel@lemmy.world
        16·
        5 months ago

        Hard to not be a cynic and assume the ADA (American Dental Association) isn’t wholly made up of “the 10th dentist” lobbying against dental progress but…

        That is not the only dental care breakthrough that isn’t widely available in the US (they’re all available and priced for the ‘I don’t actually need to worry about price tags’ crowd, who can also just travel elsewhere) but which would promote healthier lives at the cost of less dentist visits. Curious how it happens.

    • Cosmicomical@lemmy.world
      4·
      5 months ago

      Something like this seems cheap and longterm enough to be included in an insurance. Maybe not immediately, but soon enough.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
      1115·
      5 months ago

      God damn - every single post about something good is just filled with sad sacks that have to find something negative to focus on.

      • arf@lemmy.todayEnglish
        141·
        5 months ago

        Healthcare is a huge sore spot in US culture right now. There’s been too much high-level corruption and greed to have faith in any change.

      • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
        91·
        5 months ago

        Well unfortunately we are all products of our environments, where every single beneficial discovery inevitably becomes a commercial endeavour and priced out of reach of the societies that could benefit most from them. You are entitled to be the cheerleader for the discoverers to your hearts content, just as we are allowed to see and react to the after effects of it

      • lobotomo@lemmy.world
        61·
        5 months ago

        Do you disagree with what they actually said though?

        Maybe everyone focuses on the negatives because we just did 5 straight years where it seems like if given the choice between two outcomes positive and negative, we’re living in the timeline where the negative thing always happens.

        • ripcord@lemmy.world
          2·
          5 months ago

          My point is that some bizarre monoculture has developed where people seem to be pathologically unable to accept that something good happened for a change, and to focus on the good thing. Virtually every comment finds some way to find some ultra-pessimistic take. The very best possible take is nearly always something like “wtf took them so long” or “OK, now do X”.

          It should be okay - occasionally - to be happy that something good happened. We have the 98% of other posts out there to moan about and focus on the negative stuff.

          It was bad on Reddit, but it seems even worse here.

          It’s exhausting.

      • callouscomic@lemm.eeEnglish
        51·
        5 months ago

        Nice of you to just disregard the real suffering that a shitty healthcare and insurance system creates.

      • danc4498@lemmy.worldEnglish
        51·
        5 months ago

        You should expect every post to have a variety of opinions. Some positive, some negative. Not everybody is going to react to posts the same way you do.

        • ripcord@lemmy.world
          2·
          5 months ago

          The vast majority of replies in this thread, and to nearly every positive post - are sadsackery.

          Differing opinions is fine. Raw, pointless pessimism as a monoculture is…not what you’re describing.

          • danc4498@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            5 months ago

            Vast majority, eh? How do you define vast majority? The vast majority of comments in this thread are positive. You’ve decided to focus on the negative comment.

            Raw pointless pessimism? Way to totally ignore the VALID point I brought up in my comment. Insurance (including dental insurance), is bananas in America.

  • Khanzarate@lemmy.world
    20·
    5 months ago

    I had my wisdom teeth removed because I failed to take care of them (dumb teenager), but my dentist told me my jaw fit them just fine, so I never had to lose them.

    I want them back.

      • Khanzarate@lemmy.world
        2·
        5 months ago

        I’m not dumb nowwww though. I want them back.

        Dentist didn’t even let me keep them. I was gonna cast them in resin and make bone dice out of my mistake. Unfortunately, human teeth aren’t big enough to make dice without some extra material.

    • lapping6596@lemmy.world
      2·
      5 months ago

      I had the exact same experience.

      I wonder how weird it is to have teeth in the empty flesh spots left there now.

      • eletes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        I still have mine in in my 30’s. I forget about them except when brushing since I don’t want a cavity back there. There are a few times where I’ve actively tried using them and it’s hard to tell they’re being used

      • Khanzarate@lemmy.world
        1·
        5 months ago

        I bet it won’t be weird at all, honestly.

        Growing pains, obviously, that’d be weird, but once they’re in, you’d get used to them as easily as you got used to having them removed.

        At least, I had mine for a number of years before they were removed. It seems surprising, but I’m used to not having them, and I think the inverse will be equally weird.

  • PineRune@lemmy.world
    131·
    5 months ago

    I had a new tooth start sprouting on the inside of my mouth a while back. The new nerve in it was horribly sensitive, and I thought I had a cracked or damaged tooth before the dentist told me what was going on. I would rather have a nerve-less implant than a new-growing tooth like that again, given the choice.

    Edit: It was a random new growth along the outside of my gums in my 20s.

  • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
    10·
    5 months ago

    There’s already several comments about how expensive it would be in the US along with dental care in general, but IIRC a lot of other countries leave dentistry out of their health care plans as well. Any country that can foresee this as becoming freely available want to speak up?

    • brb@sh.itjust.works
      10·
      5 months ago

      In Finland dental care

      • is free for students (~70€/year for upper education)

      • is free if you are unable to work and have no income

      • has payment ceiling of 762€/year for everyone else (other healthcare is included in this also)

      Medicine also has payment ceiling of 627€/year after which you pay 2.50€ for any medicine

      So not completely free but pretty manageable I would say

    • deraceituno@lemmy.world
      7·
      5 months ago

      In germany it would probably fall under aesthetics care like implants. Meaning they could eventually cover a portion, but the rest is on u. Was like that for my implant

  • Raxiel@lemmy.world
    3·
    5 months ago

    Between this and the tooth decay “vaccine” (that replaces acid producing bacteria in the mouth with an alcohol producing kind) there’s no reason my kids shouldn’t reach old age without a full set of their teeth.
    Aside from that whole, climate-change-driven-collapse-of-social -order thing.

    I better avoid it through. I had four of my otherwise healthy adult teeth removed early on to avoid crowding issues. No idea where they’d fit in my head now if they grew back

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
    913·
    5 months ago

    as exciting as this is here in the US at least insurance prices are not affordable and neither is basic health care

    this sounds like something Biden, Trump, and their donors will benefit from though