The researchers will conduct trials for teething medicine, aimed at treating people with congenital anodontia who are born with few teeth.
A team of researchers in Kansai is set to begin clinical trials next month to develop medicine to help grow teeth.
The researchers, including from Kitano Hospital and Kyoto University Hospital, will conduct trials for teething medicine, aimed at treating people with congenital anodontia who are born with few teeth.
To check its safety, the experimental drug will first be administered to adult men who have lost back teeth, before it is tested on children with congenital anodontia. The team aims to put the treatment into practical use in around 2030.
Not actually. This doesn't do anything for most normal people. It's for people who didn't properly have a normal 2nd set of teeth. So if you just had your "adult" set of teeth go bad, this won't help you.
*After doing a little more research, my above statement is correct. This drug only inhibits the protein that people with congenital anodontia have, so those people are able to start growing teeth. Less than 1% of people have congenital anodontia.
The little mention in the article about it leading to growing teeth in people who have lost them due to cavities (as the person with all the upvotes that replied to me here) is complete hyperbole in the article. This protein suppression medication can't work on someone with a normal protein. It was just mentioned as fluff to get more press about "future possibilities".
The article says that they hope to regrow teeth for people who have lost their teeth to cavities, and the initial test is being done on adults who have lost back teeth. So pretty much the exact target audience you say it wouldn't target.