Irreplaceable?

You should definitely continue to believe your dentist when he or she warns you that your teeth, once lost, are never coming back. Even here at Hamlin Dental Group a lost natural tooth will remain forever lost and replaceable only with implants or dentures. However, in the future, at least, that may not always be the case thanks to some very interesting potential new technology.

It's not like the possibility of growing new teeth later in life is necessarily completely brand new. It's a bit creepy and we can't be sure of the veracity of the news story. However, a couple of very old men in Vietnam have allegedly grown what sounds like late-life baby teeth. While that's not the kind of story a dentist in Van Nuys hears every day, it's also by its nature the flukiest of flukes.

On the other hand, a study that was published in the Journal of Dental Research and was then was then picked up earlier this spring in Science World Daily indicates that new teeth, biologically engineered from stem cells in the gums, might someday be able to regrow teeth, with far better results than modern day dental implants. This might also sound a bit creepy, the still very preliminary advances we have come from combining human and mouse cells together to create hybrid teeth that could be prototypes for the ability of a dentist in Northridge or anywhere else being able to simply grow a new tooth in your mouth when the old one is lost.

Pretty interesting but, like we said, it's a little bit of a ways off -- and even then, you'll still want to take good care of  your teeth. This procedure is likely to be time consuming and expensive. Possibly also a bit controversial. So, if you haven't visited our offices yet, it's a great time to schedule a consultation and remember to brush, floss, and rinse with fluoride mouthwash regularly. Losing even a single tooth is never going to be a good thing.