An innovative gel that forms a layer over teeth and then recruits calcium and phosphate ions from saliva to build new enamel has the potential to change dental treatment. To date, we don't have any way to regenerate the tough outer layer of enamel on our teeth as it erodes with age.
Dentists make a lot more money off of major repairs and general maintenance than they do by replacing teeth entirely.
Oral surgeons on the other hand do make money off major repairs to damaged teeth or teeth replacements. I know people often call anyone who works on teeth a dentist, but technically they are different professions.
implants are a niche industry though, not related to general dentistry, its considered cosmetic. so its very EXPENSIVE for implants, per tooth can be thousands(3-6k or more) they would have to go toa cosmetic dentist if they want “replacement teeth, aka implants”. I only ever went to an oral surgeon for bottom wisdom tooth extraction.
plus there is one that is orifacial, which works on the jaw/ teeth, if you have a severe prognathism or overbite/underbit they can consider surgery combined with some dental procedures beforehand. i have prognathism but i never got surgery for it, wish i did when i was younger.
I have had four teeth replaced with the oral surgeon doing the screw and the dentist did the crowns. Yes it is expensive, but reasonably common, and partially covered by dental insurance.
Huh? If you could regrow a teeth with a simple solution then they would not make money off of anything except pulling them out, and prescribing luxury bone juice.
I sure af would not waste money fixing teeth I could just regrow, especially if it can regrow in place as this article suggests without the awkward missing tooth phase.
It would be like rotors on cars. Nobody resurfaces them anymore - they just replace because replacing has become so cheap that there is no point.
But you do replace your brake pads before the wear out completely instead of just letting them grind your rotors, right?
Most dentist visits are like oil changes and vehicle checks to make sure things aren’t going to fail catastrophically.
You would be surprised how many people already don’t maintain their teeth and they aren’t replaceable yet for non ferrets.