Teeth Grown In Lab

I wake in the middle of most nights with a sharp pain in my mouth, which I tell myself is the result of stress-related jaw grinding rather than some sort of deeper dental issue that I am too much of a frightened child to actually go see a professional about. (Dental work freaks me out!) So you think I’d be greeting this new miracle of Science with unalloyed joy.

For the first time, scientists from the Tokyo University of Science have grown fully formed teeth from stem cells. The artificial teeth that looked like the real thing, were sensitive to pain and could chew food. Though the breakthrough was made on mice, it could pave the way for those who lose teeth to decay or injury to be able to grow’ replacements.

And you know, yeah, fine, it’s a little creepy and whatever, but I am not particularly attached to the set I’ve got now: If they could knock them all out and put in a whole new model I’d be the first one to sign up for the procedure. (I assume they’d put me under for that, which, you know, bonus.) But hold up a second: “sensitive to pain”? WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU WANT THAT? If you are making a new breed of super-teeth, can’t you give us something that is resistant to pain? (And cigarette stains?) Science, some times I feel like I don’t understand you at all.

Photo by Amanda Slater