Losing a tooth is more than just a painful inconvenience. It’s the loss of a living, functional part of your body — one that helps you chew, speak, and smile with confidence. For decades, the options for tooth replacement have been limited to dentures or titanium implants. These solutions are often expensive, imperfect, and sometimes prone to complications. But what if, instead of relying on synthetic substitutes, we could grow new, living teeth?
Researchers at Tufts University are inching closer to making this wild idea a reality. In a new study, a team led by Pamela Yelick, a professor at the Tufts School of Dental Medicine, has successfully grown bioengineered teeth in pigs using a combination of human and pig cells. While the science is still in its early stages, the findings could one day lead to a future where you could have your missing teeth replaced with biological dentition.
Pigs and Human Tooth Regeneration
Unlike humans, who grow only two sets of teeth in their lifetime, pigs can grow five or six sets. This remarkable ability has made them a focal point for researchers studying tooth regeneration.
Yelick and her team took soft tissue from human teeth — donated from orthodontic procedures — and combined it with cells from pig teeth. They then seeded these cells onto biodegradable scaffolds shaped like teeth and implanted them into the jaws of mini pigs. After a few months, the researchers observed something extraordinary: the cells had organized themselves into tooth-like structures, complete with hard layers of dentin and cementum.
“In a few months, you can get a pretty good-sized bioengineered tooth,” Yelick told NPR. While the teeth weren’t perfect in shape or size, they closely resembled natural teeth.
Beyond growing teeth for applied medical procedures, the findings also help scientists better understand how nature does it. “We’re starting to decode the way nature codes the cells to make teeth,” said Cristiane Miranda França, a dentist-scientist at Oregon Health & Science University who was not involved in the study.
Better Than Implants?
Today, dental implants are the gold standard for tooth replacement. But they’re far from perfect. Made of titanium and topped with porcelain crowns, implants can fail if they’re not perfectly aligned with existing teeth, leading to jawbone damage. Bacteria can also attach to the implants, causing infections that may result in bone loss.
“It’s very difficult to replace an implant because first you have to rebuild all the bone that has been absorbed over time,” Yelick explained in an interview with MIT Tech Review.
Bioengineered teeth, on the other hand, could integrate seamlessly with the jaw and gums, mimicking the natural structure of real teeth. Unlike implants, which are anchored into the bone, natural teeth are tethered by ligaments. These absorb the forces of chewing, reducing the risk of damage.
In the Tufts study, the bioengineered teeth developed these ligament-like connections, a promising sign that they could one day function like natural teeth. “These bioengineered teeth exhibit key properties of natural teeth that are missing in titanium implants,” clarified França.
From Pigs to Humans: Challenges Await
While the results are exciting, the science is not yet ready for human trials. The bioengineered teeth grown in pigs were smaller than human teeth and lacked the precise shape needed for full functionality. There’s also the risk that uncontrolled cell growth could lead to cancerous formations. This is a huge safety concern that researchers must address before applying the technology to human volunteers.
Nevertheless, this progress is exciting. The ability to grow teeth could pave the way for regenerating other organs, advancing the broader field of regenerative medicine. And as public acceptance of bioengineering grows — a 2018 Pew Research survey found that 57% of U.S. adults support genetically engineering animals to grow organs — the idea of growing teeth in pigs may become less science fiction and more science fact.
As Yelick put it, “Time to get some better substitutes out there.”
The findings appeared in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine.
