Tooth be told, fillings and implants may soon be a thing of the past
ETimes November 19, 2025 05:39 AM
Imagine a future in which a missing or damaged tooth isn’t replaced with a crown, denture or titanium implant, but simply regrown — biologically — from your own cells. That possibility is inching closer to reality thanks to breakthroughs in regenerative dentistry . In April this year, a team at King’s College London (KCL), in collaboration with Imperial College London, announced that they had engineered a biomaterial scaffold that allows cells to communicate and form tooth-like structures in vitro — a key step toward lab-grown human teeth.
Dr Ana Angelova Volponi, director of regenerative dentistry at KCL, said the research could “revolutionise dental care”. The study also notes that while some animals such as sharks and elephants can grow new teeth throughout their lives, humans get only one adult set.
Why This Matters
Today, if you lose a permanent tooth — whether from decay, trauma or congenital absence — treatment typically involves implants , bridges or dentures. While effective, these rely on synthetic materials, surgical intervention, and often require long-term maintenance. The KCL researchers emphasise that a biologically grown tooth would integrate naturally into the jawbone, with nerves and ligaments intact, behaving like a real tooth. That could reduce the long-term risks of wear, failure, or rejection that come with artificial replacements.
Reason To Smile
The real breakthrough lies not in producing a fully-grown tooth yet, but in creating the right laboratory environment for tooth-forming cells to do their work. In earlier experiments, cells placed into scaffolds failed to organise properly because developmental signals arrived all at once.
The new research, according to ScienceAlert, uses a hydrogel scaffold — a water-rich polymer — that releases signals gradually, mimicking the natural “matrix” in which teeth form. Within this structure, epithelial and mesenchymal cells (derived from mouse embryos for now) were able to interact and begin the early stages of tooth formation. As The Independent reports, scientists are exploring two possible pathways toward clinical use:
1) Transplanting immature tooth-forming cells — a “tooth bud” — into the empty socket and letting it grow naturally; or
2) Growing a full tooth in the lab, then implanting it surgically.
Each approach has trade-offs: in-mouth growth could minimise surgery, while lab-grown teeth offer greater control. It’s too early to say which will prove more effective.
What The Advantage Is
Traditional fillings and implants come with drawbacks. Fillings can weaken surrounding tooth structures, while implants require drilling and bone anchoring — with risks of rejection, bone loss or limited lifespan. A lab-grown biological tooth, derived from the patient’s own cells, would integrate organically with bone and ligament, potentially remodeling and repairing itself like a natural tooth. Still, the technology isn’t ready for patients. Much of the work remains pre-clinical, using animal or mixed human-mouse models.
The latest KCL study relied on mouse embryo-derived progenitor cells to test the hydrogel scaffold, not yet fully human adult cells, ScienceAlert notes. Experts also point out that engineered teeth currently lack full maturation — they don’t yet have a complete blood-vessel network, nerve supply or fully developed enamel and roots. Elsewhere, researchers in Japan are running early clinical trials of treatments that stimulate natural tooth regrowth in patients born without certain teeth — a different, but complementary, line of work.
Challenges ahead
Several technical, clinical and ethical hurdles remain. Scientists still need to figure out how a lab-grown tooth could integrate seamlessly with nerves, blood vessels, periodontal ligaments and bone to function like a real one. To avoid rejection, each tooth ideally needs to be grown from the patient’s own cells — a process difficult to scale. And even if perfected, the path from lab to clinic involves years of trials, approvals, manufacturing protocols and cost testing before dentists can routinely offer regrown teeth.
A Broader Dental Vision
If successful, tooth regeneration could transform dentistry itself. The field would shift from repairing damage with synthetic materials to restoring natural biology, focusing on prevention and regeneration. Someday, “just grow a new tooth” could replace “book a filling” as a standard line in dental care .
Though timelines are uncertain, researchers are cautiously optimistic. Some predict that within the next decade, the technology could reach early human trials, starting with simpler, single-tooth cases before expanding to more complex restorations. Either way, the groundwork is being laid for a future where smiles can truly grow back — one cell at a time.
