broken teeth could soon be repaired by a new treatment.

A breakthrough has been made that could mean broken teeth become a thing of the past.

Research carried out by George Huang, the Herbert Schilder chair in endodontics and director of the postdoctoral programme in endodontics at the School of Dental Medicine, has discovered a way to use stem cells to regrow lost portions of teeth.

The procedure works by extracting living stem cells and using them to create any missing structures within a mature tooth, for example due to injury or decay.

“Perhaps in the future, we’ll be regrowing a whole tooth and that may take 30 years, but once the technology is mature, it may replace dental implants,” commented Mr Huang.

Elsewhere, Provia Laboratories recently launched its new Save-A-Tooth system that can be used to store stem cells found in lost teeth.

The product’s manufacturer noted both wisdom and baby teeth are good sources of stem cells and Save-A-Tooth can be used to cryogenically store these teeth for up to 20 years.