A new Canadian tool can re-grow teeth say
inventors Wednesday, June 28, 2006 (AFP)
Snaggle-toothed hockey players and sugar
lovers may soon rejoice as Canadian scientists said they
have created the first device able to re-grow teeth and
bones.
The researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton
filed patents earlier this month in the United States for
the tool based on low-intensity pulsed ultrasound
technology after testing it on a dozen dental patients in
Canada.
"Right now, we plan to use it to fix fractured or diseased
teeth, as well as asymmetric jawbones, but it may also
help hockey players or children who had their tooth
knocked out," Jie Chen, an engineering professor and nano-circuit
design expert, told AFP.
Chen helped create the tiny ultrasound
machine that gently massages gums and stimulates tooth
growth from the root once inserted into a person's mouth,
mounted on braces or a removable plastic crown.
The wireless device, smaller than a pea, must be activated
for 20 minutes each day for four months to stimulate
growth, he said.
It can also stimulate jawbone growth to fix a person's
crooked smile and may eventually allow people to grow
taller by stimulating bone growth, Chen said.
Tarek El-Bialy, a new member of the
university's dentistry faculty, first tested the low-intensity
pulsed ultrasound treatment to repair dental tissue in rabbits
in the late 1990s.
His research was published in the American Journal of
Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics and later presented
at the World Federation of Orthodontics in Paris in September
2005.
With the help of Chen and Ying Tsui, another engineering
professor, the initial massive handheld device was shrunk to
fit inside a person's mouth.
It is still at the prototype stage, but the
trio expects to commercialize it within two years, Chen said.
The bigger version has already received approvals from
American and Canadian regulatory bodies, he noted.
