Farewell to the fillings!

2001/01/22 Carton Virto, Eider - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biokimika
• Medikuntza

If broken or rotten teeth grow back, pay little! It would not be necessary to pack and end the germ and pain. Desire will not come true immediately, but it will not be an unattainable dream. Songtau Shi, a researcher at a Washington research institute, has recently achieved the growth of the tissues that form the tooth.

Introduction to research

The teeth are composed of curd, dentin and enamels. In the heart of the tooth is the crumb, veins and nerves. Around the pulp is the dentin, yellow and hard material, and the surface is formed by enamels, the hardest tissue of the body.

Songtau Shi has managed to produce curd and dentin for the moment. To do this, he took the pacifiers from his 19 and 29 year old friends and tore their pulp. He then isolated, treated and injected the mouse stem cells from the pulp. In two months the injected cells produced dentin and curd. The next step will be to seek with the crumb the way to produce nerves and veins, and the most difficult will be the regeneration of the enamel. The enamel has a very complex structure and no one has achieved a suitable material to replace it.

Total advantages

The ultimate goal is the integral regeneration of dental tissues so that the filler hole is not an extra part, but an integral part of the tooth. Currently, the materials for fillings are manufactured from mercury or polymers, which in addition to being synthetic, do not serve forever. They may fall or break and cause other cavities. If dental tissue repairs were possible, these problems could be avoided.