Earlier this year, scientists revealed that a new tooth-regrowing drug would enter human trials before the end of 2024. They’ve cut it close, but Japanese dentists testing the new tooth-growing drug finally launched the next phase of their clinical trials in October at Kyoto University Hospital.
The drug builds off a little-known secret hiding just beneath the surface of our gums. See, it’s pretty well accepted that humans and most other mammals only have two sets of teeth that they can grow. However, scientists say that we actually have the buds of a third generation hiding beneath our gums.
It is these hidden buds that the tooth-regrowing drug taps into to help regrow missing teeth entirely. So far, the drug has seen very promising results from tests on mice and ferrets. Essentially, it blocks a protein called USAG-1, which allows the third set of teeth to awaken.
This triggers the tooth regeneration effects that the drug has become known for. The drug was created as a response to a hereditary condition that affects around 0.1 percent of people in the world. This causes them to have severe trouble chewing, and in Japan, many of them spend a good chunk of their adolescence hiding their mouth with a mask.
Utilizing this tooth-regrowing drug to activate the third set of teeth hidden beneath their gums would allow dentists to replace those missing teeth with healthy, natural replacements. But this is only the beginning. While clinical trials have seen success, it remains to be seen just how well the drug works in humans.
Hopefully, the scientists will see good results in the coming months as the drug takes effect. Luckily, it seems they can control where the new tooth grows by pinpointing exactly where to inject the drug in the mouth. But this trial isn’t even to test whether or not the drug can actually regrow teeth. It’s just to see how safe it can be.
But if the scientists are extremely lucky, the tooth-regrowing drug will do what it is intended to do, and we’ll see some promising results early on.
