A miracle drug out of Japan evidently has the potential to grow a new set of teeth in adults who don’t have them due to “congenital factors” and researchers are set to begin the groundbreaking clinical trial in July 2024.

Japan’s national daily news site, Mainichi, reported on the development that is being called “every dentist’s dream.”

“The idea of growing new teeth is every dentist’s dream,” Dr. Katsu Takahashi, who is a lead researcher and the head of the dentistry and oral surgery department at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital, told Mainichi in an interview.

“I’ve been working on this since I was a graduate student,” he remarked. “I was confident I’d be able to make it happen.”

The world’s first tooth regrowth medicine enters human trials in Japan! In the near future, we may actually achieve the holy grail of dentistry which is just regrowing teeth! pic.twitter.com/Hci6VWAp1A

— Drift0r (@Drift0r) July 2, 2023

The miracle drug could be available as soon as 2030 and will be a godsend for those who don’t have a full set of teeth. If the trial succeeds, it will be the first drug in the world that will allow humans to regrow teeth.

The drug has been in development at Kyoto University since 2005. Takahashi found a particular gene in mice that affected the growth of their teeth. Painstaking experimentation has led to the possibility of it being used for human teeth.

According to the New York Post, “The antibody for this gene, USAG-1, can help stimulate tooth growth if it is suppressed — something that Takahashi further explored in a 2021 study published in Science Advances.”

“Scientists have since worked to develop a ‘neutralizing antibody medicine’ that is able to block USAG-1. When tested in mice and ferrets, researchers found that the animals were able to grow new teeth,” the media outlet continued.

Hope it’s for real, can help a lot of people with dental issues

— FuturamaKing (@FuturamaKing) July 6, 2023

The drug is intended to help people that have a rare genetic disorder called anodontia, or the total “absence of teeth,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. The condition causes the teeth never to develop in the first place.

People who suffer from the disorder can have an absence of baby teeth and/or adult teeth. It can result in the absence of six or more teeth, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Takahashi is optimistic that the miracle drug could be another option for those who don’t have a full set of teeth in general at some point.

“In any case, we’re hoping to see a time when tooth-regrowth medicine is a third choice alongside dentures and implants,” Takahashi commented.

The researchers described the new process as sparking a “third-generation” of tooth regeneration, the first generation being the emergence of milk teeth in babies and the second being the permanent adult teeth that pop out later in childhood.

— Zeen Alam (@ZeennAlam) July 6, 2023

The suggestion that the drug therapy could be available for general use as early as the start of the next decade sounds pretty optimistic, but its clear the team believe they’re onto something.

— Zeen Alam (@ZeennAlam) July 6, 2023

Following the successful testing of the medicine, researchers want to make the drug available to children from ages 2 to 6 who display signs of anodontia, according to Mainichi.

“We hope to pave the way for the medicine’s clinical use,” Takahashi said.

Medical science is progressing faster than ever and human organ regrowth is also part of the miracle leaps it is making.

The New York Post reported, “In 2018, scientists at the University of Washington School of Medicine developed an automated system that allowed robots to produce human mini-organs made from stem cells. And in April 2022, scientists at Columbia University created a set of real human organs that interact on a chip. The project leader was able to engineer ‘human heart, bone, liver and skin that are linked by vascular flow with circulating immune cells.'”

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