Find out how to help people teething unlimited

People currently only teething twice throughout their lives. However, Lake Malawi cichlid fish can grow teeth indefinitely, whenever they lose their teeth. According to a new study, humans may one day regrow their teeth similar to cichlids, ending the need for dentures.

Have found a way to help people grow teeth unlimitedly

Scientists are studying hundreds of cichlids to find out which genes help this species maintain its teeth throughout their adult life. Through understanding the chemicals that change the teeth wall and taste buds in embryonic fish, they hope to "activate" adult re-teething mechanisms.

Research, which includes looking at differences in teeth in mice, suggests that the re-teething process may still take longer than our long-term view.

Professor Todd Streelman from the Georgia Institute of Technology (US) said: "We have discovered the flexible development of teeth and taste buds . We are trying to understand the pathways that make cells or development of dental wall or development of sensory organs ".

Lake Malawi cichilid fish can re-grow without limit.(Photo: Daily Mail).

Professor Streelman and colleagues discovered that taste buds and teeth grow from the same surface tissues in cichlids in their infancy. Unlike humans, fish have no tongue, so their taste buds exist mixed with teeth, sometimes into adjacent rows.

The Lake Malawi herds of cichlids evolved from the same ancestor thousands of years ago. They have evolved teeth and buds to adapt to their unique living conditions. For example, a subspecies of cichlids eat plankton and need less teeth, because they locate the food source by sight and swallow the bait. Meanwhile, another subspecies of cichlids live on algae, growing more teeth and taste buds to differentiate food and rust from algae and rocks.

By embedding embryonic cichlids in chemicals that affect their growth pathways, they have enhanced the development of taste buds but reduced tooth growth. These changes begin only 5 - 6 days wrong when fertilized eggs, embryonic fish have eyes and brain, and are developing jaws.

It seems that there are "development switches" that will change the fate of normal epithelial cells into dental structures or sensations. Teeth and taste buds originate from the same epithelial tissue in the developing embryos of the fish embryo and later on to differentiate to form teeth with hard enamel or soft taste buds.

Through studying genetic differences in cichlids and mice, the team believes that similar tissues in humans can also help re-erupt. This is expected to bring hope to 60% of adults who lose their teeth permanently when they turn 60. The phenomenon of such tooth loss is not only painful, but it can also cause nutritional and health problems, leading to a decline in human life expectancy.