Popular Mechanics is like Popular Science right? Extremely bullish on new technologies to the degree of taking one study and turning it into a breathless article about how we're 1 year away from flying cars?
Sorry for the cynicism, but I grew up subscribing to Popular Science and I gained a very jaundiced view of this kind of science/technology popularizing
Yes, they loved the moller sky car, frankly these magazines would have been great if they just accurately caveated stage of development and leaned into a speculative "The World of Tomorrow" attitude for these types of things. As a result of NOT doing that they really poisoned people against the very idea of progress (of which we make a ton.)
Unrelated to the growth topic, but related to teeth.
5 or something years ago I read here, on hn, about novamin/biomin and started to buy toothpaste with it.
Since that I had 0 cavities, even if my toothcare routine isn’t the best: most of the time I brush only in evening and when I had severe clinical depression episode I could go weeks without brushing.
Sort of tangential: I used to be able to tell episodes of depression were setting in because I'd stop brushing my teeth. It was the clearest indicator I can recall.
I'd then brush my teeth hoping it would cure the depression. It clearly worked, because I'm no longer depressed. It just took a few years to kick in.
OK, and my anecdote is that for forty years I used no toothpaste at all, brushed only before bed, didn't floss, never went to the dentist, and had perfect teeth. The conclusion of this limited study is: whatever.
I guess I should admit that eventually I got lazy and skipped a night, and immediately got a cavity that led to having a tooth removed, and now I use toothpaste and floss. But still, anecdotes, what are they worth.
I learned that dentists make their money by doing procedures that have little overhead and high returns.
I read about patients who would go one dentist that said they found X cavities and then go to another dentist that would say 'zero' were found.
I tested it myself when I was told I required extensive cleaning beneath the gums and the next dentist, who has a 3 month waiting list, said it was not required and my teeth were fine.
I no longer believe any dentist and considering most are now private equity operated it makes sense.
Is there also not a some genetic aspect there? It is a question as I do not know but always assumed as I always did whatever and have 0 cavities or anything else that other people seem to have and I am almost 60. Never have receding gums, sensitivity, cavities or anything else since I was born.
There is a genetic aspect I'm sure. But I think most people don't avoid consequences of, say, drinking lots of soda while not brushing teeth. I bet there are nutritional factors too. If you are chronically malnourished, your teeth may be worse somehow.
I think regularly brushing your teeth and getting cleanings makes a big difference obviously. Gum disease or gingivitis mainly happens to people who have long-term dental care issues or certain bad habits.
It's actually really bad to brush teeth just after drinking soda because the acidity of the CO2 softens the enamel. Better to wait a while. That's what my dentist said anyway.
Counter-anecdote, I did the same, got Burt's Bees with novamin when they still sold it (discontinued), then switched back to Crest. I prefer the Crest. No cavities either way, but tooth sensitivity and clean feeling differences. A tooth chip I wondered might remineralize, i.e. grow back or fill in or something, had no change.
My guess is the SLS detergent, present in Crest and not in Burt's, is the more significant factor.
Fun fact - all of your adult teeth were already there from the start, hiding under(inside?) the gums. We don't "grow" new teeth when the baby teeth fall out - the adult teeth were always there under them.
It may be fun, but it's not a fact. At birth, you likely have all the tooth buds to grow your primary teeth and maybe your permanent molars. Premolar and canine buds typically form during the first year of life. Second molar buds form around age two. Third molar (wisdom teeth) buds don't begin developing until around age five to six and in some folks they don't grow at all.
I have a condition where my lower front permanent teeth never developed. We weren't sure if any of our kids would have the same issue so we discussed it with the dentist. They couldn't tell us if all the permanent teeth were present or developing because there hadn't been enough time for first xrays to show all of the permanent teeth buds growing. Even at age 3.
This is not true. I’ve seen x-rays of a child’s mouth with clearly no adult teeth visible below the gums. Later I’ve seen X-rays of the same mouth with one or two adult teeth below the gums where baby teeth are about to fall out. The adult teeth are there underneath once the baby teeth fall out but they are not there “from the start”. That isn’t even to mention the size problem.
so I used to think this (till this past week), it's not quite true. Yes, ther are images of showing child skulls with lots of teeth. those are generally hyperdontia.
Confused a bit by the article: it mentions human trials began in september 2024, but also that the trials that might prove it working are yet to start?
I think it's just poorly written. If you go to the source[1] the trial period was planned from September 2024 to August 2025, and the submission says people are "undergoing" a trial. Perhaps it got delayed, or, more likely IMHO, the trial period is over and they're studying the data so haven't made reached a conclusion yet.
Aren't the shape/size/placement/etc. of human teeth fairly unique across different individuals? At least unique enough to use dental records to identify bodies.
I don't see if mentioned in TFA, but if new human teeth can be grown is it expected that the new ones will just grow in "correctly" to fit a person's mouth?
> At least unique enough to use dental records to identify bodies.
Yes but in comparative dental analysis they use ante-mortem dental records to compare with post-mortem remains. It's not like DNA where you can record it once and then use that to match samples decades later in a database. In order to have a high confidence in a match, recent x-rays and records of dental work like fillings, crowns, etc. work best.
And no it is not expected. It's one of the primary challenges with bringing these kinds of drugs to market, as hyperdontia is already relatively common among humans (I had an incisor growing at the roof of my mouth an inch behind my row of teeth). Most successful applications of these tooth regrowth drugs tend to place them near the root of missing teeth hoping that the cellular growth signaling mechanisms are still working.
I've been taking vitamin k2 mk4 at 45mg a day for over a year now. My teeth feel gr8. Now I need to get some of this stuff to have super human chompers.
This guy's been downvoted badly but he's right - vitamin k2 make your teeth into "superteeth".
I started K2 about 10 years ago. Next dental checkup (about a year too late) the dental tech said my teeth appeared recently-cleaned. This has continued since then. No cavities, little cleaning required other than regular brushing, flossing and taking k2.
IIRC plaque is mineralized by saliva in the same way as tooth enamel, so something that changes saliva in a way that prevents tartar from forming might be reducing the amount of calcium in your saliva in a way that could potentially ultimately not be good for your teeth.
I am hoping for advancements in cartilage growth. I underwent microfracture surgery in my knee and will eventually need a replacement unless we make progress in this field. I would prefer to avoid knee replacement if possible because I enjoy being active. I am hopeful we’re getting close.
In the summer my knees were so wrecked I could barely make it up and down the stairs. My GP first thought it was an inflammation and prescribed something for that, but when I went back after a couple of weeks he said the cartilage may have worn off and prescribed me Flexofytol. It may be placebo effect, but between taking it a bit easier, cycling more, and the flexofytol, my knees are the best they've been since I injured them in the first place.
Anecdotal, but I was going in for carpal tunnel work and ran into an older gentleman, probably early 70s, that had just gone through a knee replacement a week earlier. He was walking around on it and said he wasn't really in any pain.
I have heard great things about knee replacements. Unfortunately, I’m relatively young (late 30s). If I were to get a replacement now, I’d likely need another one when I’m older. Additionally, I imagine getting an artificial knee replacement would make you no longer a candidate for lab-grown replacements. There is an option already where they can grow your cartilage in a lab, but it’s quite expensive, and my insurance will not cover it.
Well, I'm personally hoping stem cells pull through for corneal tissue regrowth. I've got significant scarring in one eye. I'd rather not get a donor (cadaver) cornea sewn on if it's avoidable but we'll see.
I'm sure you're correct. That said, I saw a friend who went bald at 28 get all of his hair back from Minoxidil + finasteride. Maybe his folicles weren't closed/gone but he was bald and a year later, was not.
Apparently there's also now-a-days, Micro-needling, Stem Cell Therapy, Platelet-Rich Plasma, and others. No idea how effective they actually are
Sorry my bad. It's called that way in where I'm from. The hair loss is mostly due to mechanism similar to pattern baldness but the hair loss can occur even without death of hair follicles. It could also be triggered by some autoimmune disease.
This isn’t the whole story. Many people have follicles that are dormant. Many people have success regrowing hair on bald spots with minoxidil and/or finasteride.
If you look like Sir Patrick Stewart, yeah, that’s not growing back. A bald spot might fill in with medical treatment though.
Popular Mechanics is like Popular Science right? Extremely bullish on new technologies to the degree of taking one study and turning it into a breathless article about how we're 1 year away from flying cars?
Sorry for the cynicism, but I grew up subscribing to Popular Science and I gained a very jaundiced view of this kind of science/technology popularizing
Yep, you nailed it.
Yes, they loved the moller sky car, frankly these magazines would have been great if they just accurately caveated stage of development and leaned into a speculative "The World of Tomorrow" attitude for these types of things. As a result of NOT doing that they really poisoned people against the very idea of progress (of which we make a ton.)
I wonder if at the time the "world of tomorrow" is how we think of it now with fondness.
Unrelated to the growth topic, but related to teeth.
5 or something years ago I read here, on hn, about novamin/biomin and started to buy toothpaste with it.
Since that I had 0 cavities, even if my toothcare routine isn’t the best: most of the time I brush only in evening and when I had severe clinical depression episode I could go weeks without brushing.
Sort of tangential: I used to be able to tell episodes of depression were setting in because I'd stop brushing my teeth. It was the clearest indicator I can recall.
I'd then brush my teeth hoping it would cure the depression. It clearly worked, because I'm no longer depressed. It just took a few years to kick in.
Always remember to brush your teeth.
OK, and my anecdote is that for forty years I used no toothpaste at all, brushed only before bed, didn't floss, never went to the dentist, and had perfect teeth. The conclusion of this limited study is: whatever.
I guess I should admit that eventually I got lazy and skipped a night, and immediately got a cavity that led to having a tooth removed, and now I use toothpaste and floss. But still, anecdotes, what are they worth.
I learned that dentists make their money by doing procedures that have little overhead and high returns.
I read about patients who would go one dentist that said they found X cavities and then go to another dentist that would say 'zero' were found.
I tested it myself when I was told I required extensive cleaning beneath the gums and the next dentist, who has a 3 month waiting list, said it was not required and my teeth were fine.
I no longer believe any dentist and considering most are now private equity operated it makes sense.
I believe there is high correlation between "needing additinal work" and how new the building, furniture, provider is...
Do you eat much sugar? Soda or juice? These things make a huge difference. So does age. Young people get cavities easier than somewhat older people.
Is there also not a some genetic aspect there? It is a question as I do not know but always assumed as I always did whatever and have 0 cavities or anything else that other people seem to have and I am almost 60. Never have receding gums, sensitivity, cavities or anything else since I was born.
There is a genetic aspect I'm sure. But I think most people don't avoid consequences of, say, drinking lots of soda while not brushing teeth. I bet there are nutritional factors too. If you are chronically malnourished, your teeth may be worse somehow.
I think regularly brushing your teeth and getting cleanings makes a big difference obviously. Gum disease or gingivitis mainly happens to people who have long-term dental care issues or certain bad habits.
It's actually really bad to brush teeth just after drinking soda because the acidity of the CO2 softens the enamel. Better to wait a while. That's what my dentist said anyway.
Maybe so, but at least rinse your mouth ASAP.
I drink sugar free sodas all my life.
Counter-anecdote, I did the same, got Burt's Bees with novamin when they still sold it (discontinued), then switched back to Crest. I prefer the Crest. No cavities either way, but tooth sensitivity and clean feeling differences. A tooth chip I wondered might remineralize, i.e. grow back or fill in or something, had no change.
My guess is the SLS detergent, present in Crest and not in Burt's, is the more significant factor.
I always had sensitive teeth (and brush exclusively with sensodyn for many years) so I guess this is less of a factor for me.
I buy Canadian? Sensodyne that has novamin in it.
Any idea about mHAP (hydroxi apatite)
You can do the same by just kissing a person with the right mouth biome.
This is like fusion energy. It's been 4 years away since I've been a child.
I personally regrew my teeth since I was a child. Granted, once.
Fun fact - all of your adult teeth were already there from the start, hiding under(inside?) the gums. We don't "grow" new teeth when the baby teeth fall out - the adult teeth were always there under them.
It may be fun, but it's not a fact. At birth, you likely have all the tooth buds to grow your primary teeth and maybe your permanent molars. Premolar and canine buds typically form during the first year of life. Second molar buds form around age two. Third molar (wisdom teeth) buds don't begin developing until around age five to six and in some folks they don't grow at all.
I have a condition where my lower front permanent teeth never developed. We weren't sure if any of our kids would have the same issue so we discussed it with the dentist. They couldn't tell us if all the permanent teeth were present or developing because there hadn't been enough time for first xrays to show all of the permanent teeth buds growing. Even at age 3.
This is not true. I’ve seen x-rays of a child’s mouth with clearly no adult teeth visible below the gums. Later I’ve seen X-rays of the same mouth with one or two adult teeth below the gums where baby teeth are about to fall out. The adult teeth are there underneath once the baby teeth fall out but they are not there “from the start”. That isn’t even to mention the size problem.
so I used to think this (till this past week), it's not quite true. Yes, ther are images of showing child skulls with lots of teeth. those are generally hyperdontia.
A regular child skill looks more like this x-ray
https://ccdcsmiles.com/userfiles/651/images/IMG_4253.jpg (from a dental clinic I found while searching).
Yes, you can see the adult teeth, but not all of them, and not like the hyperdontia cases.
Did they get bigger as you were "Growing up"? Then we grow teeth, you're just being pedantic about whether they're brand new or not.
It's not pedantic in this context unless you already have a way to set up fresh seed teeth.
Confused a bit by the article: it mentions human trials began in september 2024, but also that the trials that might prove it working are yet to start?
I think it's just poorly written. If you go to the source[1] the trial period was planned from September 2024 to August 2025, and the submission says people are "undergoing" a trial. Perhaps it got delayed, or, more likely IMHO, the trial period is over and they're studying the data so haven't made reached a conclusion yet.
[1]: https://www.kitano-hp.or.jp/info/20240503
It’s a phase 1 clinical trial designed only to assess safety and determine the appropriate dosage. Future trials will focus on efficacy.
I’ve heard this for the last 20 years.
BugsJustFindMe's Law of Headlines: Any headline that uses the words "May", "Might", or "Could" is equally true if those words are replaced by "Won't".
Aren't the shape/size/placement/etc. of human teeth fairly unique across different individuals? At least unique enough to use dental records to identify bodies.
I don't see if mentioned in TFA, but if new human teeth can be grown is it expected that the new ones will just grow in "correctly" to fit a person's mouth?
> At least unique enough to use dental records to identify bodies.
Yes but in comparative dental analysis they use ante-mortem dental records to compare with post-mortem remains. It's not like DNA where you can record it once and then use that to match samples decades later in a database. In order to have a high confidence in a match, recent x-rays and records of dental work like fillings, crowns, etc. work best.
And no it is not expected. It's one of the primary challenges with bringing these kinds of drugs to market, as hyperdontia is already relatively common among humans (I had an incisor growing at the roof of my mouth an inch behind my row of teeth). Most successful applications of these tooth regrowth drugs tend to place them near the root of missing teeth hoping that the cellular growth signaling mechanisms are still working.
Teeth wear quite a bit too, I wonder will new ones have to be pared down to fit.
I've been hearing this for as long as I can remember and I'm not young anymore.
Great idea but I'm sure it will be for the rich.
I've been taking vitamin k2 mk4 at 45mg a day for over a year now. My teeth feel gr8. Now I need to get some of this stuff to have super human chompers.
What changes in your subjective sensation of your teeth with K2?
This guy's been downvoted badly but he's right - vitamin k2 make your teeth into "superteeth".
I started K2 about 10 years ago. Next dental checkup (about a year too late) the dental tech said my teeth appeared recently-cleaned. This has continued since then. No cavities, little cleaning required other than regular brushing, flossing and taking k2.
IIRC plaque is mineralized by saliva in the same way as tooth enamel, so something that changes saliva in a way that prevents tartar from forming might be reducing the amount of calcium in your saliva in a way that could potentially ultimately not be good for your teeth.
Why mk4 over mk7?
Let’s hope teeth won’t grow in places they shouldn’t.
Let me introduce you to the teratoma:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teratoma
a haircut made of teeth though, hmm
We all shoult fear the vagina dentata.
Old news. They were doing this with ultrasound successfully 20 years ago. I know a guy who a tooth back with his own device.
Don't need teeth yet (lol), but curious if anyone is aware of a similar/new ways to restore the enamel?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn09kwrg57do
Mix hair in your toothpaste
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qy0w27213o
Growth rate and how you don’t mess it up before it matures are problems
Scientists regrowing everything except hair. Fuck my life.
I am hoping for advancements in cartilage growth. I underwent microfracture surgery in my knee and will eventually need a replacement unless we make progress in this field. I would prefer to avoid knee replacement if possible because I enjoy being active. I am hopeful we’re getting close.
In the summer my knees were so wrecked I could barely make it up and down the stairs. My GP first thought it was an inflammation and prescribed something for that, but when I went back after a couple of weeks he said the cartilage may have worn off and prescribed me Flexofytol. It may be placebo effect, but between taking it a bit easier, cycling more, and the flexofytol, my knees are the best they've been since I injured them in the first place.
Anecdotal, but I was going in for carpal tunnel work and ran into an older gentleman, probably early 70s, that had just gone through a knee replacement a week earlier. He was walking around on it and said he wasn't really in any pain.
I was amazed.
YMMV.
I have heard great things about knee replacements. Unfortunately, I’m relatively young (late 30s). If I were to get a replacement now, I’d likely need another one when I’m older. Additionally, I imagine getting an artificial knee replacement would make you no longer a candidate for lab-grown replacements. There is an option already where they can grow your cartilage in a lab, but it’s quite expensive, and my insurance will not cover it.
Just make sure you won't get one of those implants that cause metal toxicity / dementia:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00402-025-05869-x
Phase 2 trials on PP405 just completed. They’ll probably begin phase 3 trials sometime next year if you’re looking to enroll.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06393452
$4k and a trip to Turkey. I did it last tear and can recommend :)
My meniscus would like a word.
And limbs.
I would say every tissue: no bones, no organs, eyes, ears, nerves, skin.
Like what can they grow?
Well, I'm personally hoping stem cells pull through for corneal tissue regrowth. I've got significant scarring in one eye. I'd rather not get a donor (cadaver) cornea sewn on if it's avoidable but we'll see.
I think they're making progress.
The liver is an exception here - you can grow back a lot of it.
Not many times tho: see cirrhosis
Eh? They can grow skin cultures that are good enough to help burn victims. Not, like, with all the pores and follicles being there, but it is skin…
finasteride + minoxidil
Just keep your mental health in mind - there's growing concern that the link between finasteride and depression has been underestimated [0].
[0] https://www.psychiatrist.com/jcp/analytical-review-depressio...
Finasteride can make you have man-boobs, it’s a known side effect
Once the follicle is closed/gone, it’s gone.
Minoxidil won’t help grow hair on a patch of bold skin. After that only hair transplantation
I'm sure you're correct. That said, I saw a friend who went bald at 28 get all of his hair back from Minoxidil + finasteride. Maybe his folicles weren't closed/gone but he was bald and a year later, was not.
Apparently there's also now-a-days, Micro-needling, Stem Cell Therapy, Platelet-Rich Plasma, and others. No idea how effective they actually are
Well he even had alopecia or he got hair transplant. There is sadly no other option.
What does that mean? Alopecia is the general term for hair loss.
Sorry my bad. It's called that way in where I'm from. The hair loss is mostly due to mechanism similar to pattern baldness but the hair loss can occur even without death of hair follicles. It could also be triggered by some autoimmune disease.
This isn’t the whole story. Many people have follicles that are dormant. Many people have success regrowing hair on bald spots with minoxidil and/or finasteride.
If you look like Sir Patrick Stewart, yeah, that’s not growing back. A bald spot might fill in with medical treatment though.
If you don't have sides that is
Same like curing baldness, every 5 years there's a new medicine which doesn't work.
Teeth are orders of magnitude more complex than hair follicles.