I am not a dentist; am a layperson who reads Internet health news & is happy to share here some of the information that I find. My writing might save you some time and/or help point you towards your own further research.

The dental info. next in this post is Not the same subject as & not to be confused with humans rather spontaneously growing extra teeth in adulthood/childhood (a condition called hyperdontia, which occurs rarely: in only ~ 0.15% – 4% of people). Hyperdontia is usually not a good thing (I read that one should seek dental/medical attention sooner rather than later, as the condition “must be approached with the appropriate treatment plan”).

More happily, science has been progressing with “every dentist’s dream”: supervised methods (several methods) of enabling humans to regrow parts of damaged teeth, or even to grow a third set of teeth if needed.

Dental research published at least as early as 2004 noted advances toward the tissue engineering of teeth. I read that one method involved seeding tooth germ cells on biodegradable scaffolds which were then implanted. In a second method reported around then, mouse tooth structures were generated from non-dental stem cells placed in contact with embryonic oral epithelium (leading to growth of an [enamel, dentin & pulp] tooth structure. And (not sure of dateline): “promising work with stem cells has allowed scientists to grow tooth pulp in dogs”. Possibly leading in future to humans regrowing damaged parts of teeth (e.g. reversing a cavity without needing a filling). Although these methods are still just potential rather than being in general use, recent news estimated that the next method might be in use by 2030.

Next method involves therapeutic drugs/new medicine. Apparently “humans have a third set of teeth available as buds, ready to grow …”.  And: “clinical trials for a potential tooth regrowth treatment are set to begin in July 2024, building on decades of research”. If those trials succeed they “hope to have [it] ready for general use in 2030.” I read an opinion that “a benefit of this approach is that teeth growth could be triggered in a [relatively] natural way”.


I would like to see such dental possibilities happen successfully.