With its latest medical innovation that enables potential tooth regeneration, science has given people who have lost their teeth a reason to rejoice.

A team of researchers in Japan is currently working on a medicine that can potentially grow a new set of teeth and is also set for a medical trial slated for July 2024, the country’s national daily news site, the Mainichi, recently reported.

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

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

The novel new medicine treats people who lack a full set of adult teeth due to “congenital factors,” and researchers believe it will be available to the public by 2030.

If the team of researchers is successful, the drug will be the world’s first that allows patients to regrow their teeth.

Since about 2005, Takahashi has been conducting this study at Kyoto University and has discovered that mice have a specific gene that affects the development of their teeth, The New York Post reported.

In a 2021 study published in Science Advances, Takahashi further investigated how this gene’s antibody, USAG-1, can aid in stimulating tooth growth if it is suppressed.

Since then, researchers have worked to create a “neutralising antibody medicine” that can obstruct USAG-1. Researchers have discovered that mice and ferrets can develop new teeth when given the proper conditions.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, people with anodontia, a rare genetic disorder in which all teeth are missing because they never develop, would benefit from the medication as they would be able to present with six or more missing teeth.

The drug can also fulfil a lack of both baby and/or adult teeth in people with anodontia.

Takahashi aspires for the new medication to be just one more choice for people lacking a full set of teeth.

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

After going through the necessary tests, researchers aim to make a medicine available for children aged 2–6 with anodontia, paving the way for clinical use in human organ regrowth.

In 2018, University of Washington School of Medicine scientists developed an automated system for creating human mini-organs from stem cells, while in 2022, Columbia University created real human organs on a chip, linked by vascular flow and immune cells.