Could we ever regrow our adult teeth?

If you’re an adult human, odds are you already know a thing or two about tooth regeneration. Around age six, most of us begin to lose baby teeth in a process called eruption, exchanging our delicate, first set for more burly, permanent teeth. The phenomenon calls to mind the critters that continuously regrow their chompers — for example, sandbar sharks, which sprout tens of thousands of serrated teeth over time; and rabbits, whose incisors grow continuously as they’re worn down by roughage. If fish, bunnies, and kiddos do it in their sleep, then why don’t adults naturally expel their aging molars with shiny, new replacements? And on that note, just how close is science to making such a feat a reality?
An “intermediate step” towards regrowing permanent human teeth could involve a mash-up of synthetic materials and stem cells.
“We’re pretty good at making artificial enamel,” said Klein. “We could, perhaps, use the stem cells that exist inside the tooth to regrow the living part of the tooth and then make a crown—just like we do now for a root canal—to bioengineer a new tooth.” Later on, Klein added, “if we can learn how other animals are able to regrow their teeth from stem cells, we could actually really grow a full, new tooth in vitro.” This isn’t something Klein thinks we’ll see in the next five years, but he said he “would not be shocked if it happened during the next couple of decades, just because things are moving so fast.”