What if a missing tooth could be regrown—not by nature, but in a lab using your own cells? Scientists at King’s College London are turning that idea into a promising reality.
In collaboration with Imperial College London, researchers have made a major breakthrough in growing living teeth in the lab. By successfully replicating the natural environment needed for early tooth development, they’ve taken a crucial step toward the possibility of lab-grown teeth replacing traditional dental treatments like fillings and implants.
Today’s dental solutions come with limitations. Fillings, while common, can weaken the tooth structure over time and may lead to future sensitivity or decay. Implants, on the other hand, require invasive surgery and rely on successful integration with the jawbone. Both are artificial and don’t fully restore the natural function or resilience of a real tooth.
The new approach aims to solve these problems by growing bioengineered teeth that mimic natural ones in structure, function, and durability.
“We developed this material in collaboration with Imperial College to replicate the environment around the cells in the body, known as the matrix,” explained Dr. Xuechen Zhang from King’s College London’s Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences. “This meant that when we introduced the cultured cells, they were able to send signals to each other to start the tooth formation process.”
Previous attempts to grow teeth in the lab failed because they relied on releasing all necessary biological signals at once. In contrast, the team’s new method slowly releases these signals over time, better mimicking how teeth naturally develop in the body.
With the conditions for tooth growth successfully established, the next challenge is figuring out how to implant these lab-grown teeth into a patient’s mouth. The team is currently exploring two main strategies: transplanting young tooth cells directly into the site of a missing tooth and allowing them to grow in place, or fully developing the tooth in the lab before transplantation.
“For both options, we need to start the very early tooth development process in the lab,” Dr. Zhang added.
This breakthrough opens the door to a future where natural, functional teeth can be regrown from a person’s own cells—offering a durable, biological alternative to synthetic dental treatments.
By Impact Lab
