Tissue Engineering for Tooth Regeneration

Teeth are clinically important, easily accessible, non-essential organs whose development, cell biology and physiology are well-understood. Missing or damaged teeth are currently replaced by non-cellular structures such as metal implants. Replacement of teeth with cell-based implants that will form whole teeth or specific tooth structures is a realistic goal of regenerative dentistry. Putative stem cell populations have been identified in several different tooth tissues and the ease with which these cells can be obtained, for example from naturally lost deciduous (milk) teeth makes them an attractive source of mesenchymal stem cells.