Use lasers to stimulate dental recovery

In a study recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, scientists at Harvard University introduced a method to use low-energy lasers to activate stem cells within the tooth from which to form ivory. teeth - a very important component of teeth. The success of this method can help restore teeth for those who have permanent tooth damage without removing and using dentures instead.

"The teeth don't grow back!" That is what the dentist says when you decide to remove the permanent tooth for some reason. But now, scientists have found a natural way to create dentin. This is the most important structure of calcified teeth, containing living cells like hard bones. The method of dental restoration proposed by the researchers is based on a fairly simple and easy procedure: drill 2 holes into the broken tooth and shoot the laser inside to stimulate stem cell development.

In other recent studies, dermatologists have reported on the ability of lasers to stimulate skin and hair growth. Since then, researchers have discovered that lasers can also stimulate other biological activities inside cells, and one of them is the formation of dentin . Accordingly, explosions due to low-energy lasers create a form of oxidation reaction and produce products that can stimulate the growth of dentin.

However, the researchers also note that this method only creates dentin naturally in the enamel and the enamel-producing cells will be lost when teeth grow in the mouth. Therefore, the recovery process still needs to add more enamel around the dentin to form a complete tooth. Besides, the researchers also said that the recovery process does not include the blood marrow inside the teeth. However, when dentin is restored, the tooth will have enough stiffness to perform normal chewing functions, although not as perfect as real teeth.

Previously, researchers were able to create components of teeth from stem cells in the lab, but this was the first time that could stimulate the growth of dentin in the mouth of a living creature. Currently, the authors of the study have successfully tested some small rodents. In the next step, the researchers will continue clinical trials right on the human body in the hope that someday, this will be a widely applied dental reconstruction method to replace the implantation method. Implantation of artificial teeth has been applied ever since.