Alexandria, VA, USA - 2019 marks the Centennial of the Journal of Dental Research (JDR). Over the last century the JDR has been dedicated to the dissemination of new knowledge and information on all sciences relevant to dentistry and to the oral cavity and associated structures in health and disease.
To celebrate, the JDR is featuring a yearlong, monthly commemorative article and podcast series that highlights topics that have transformed dental, oral and craniofacial research over the past 100 years.
Over the past 100 years, tremendous progress has been made in the fields of dental tissue engineering and regenerative dental medicine, collectively known as translational dentistry. The October 2019 JDR Centennial article, "Tooth Bioengineering and Regenerative Dentistry" by Pamela Yelick, Tufts University, Boston, Mass., USA and Paul Sharpe, King's College London, England, discuss key successes that have contributed most to current knowledge and understanding of regenerative dentistry and hypothesize what to expect over the next century.
"This is an exciting era in Regenerative Dentistry, and in particular for whole tooth tissue engineering," said Yelick. "We anticipate that continued advances in the fields of dental tissue engineering and regenerative dental medicine will facilitate the development of improved dental repair therapies, including whole tooth tissue engineering."
"At the present time, the overall concept of tooth bioengineering has been proven in principle. Combinations of adult and embryonic cells from mice and humans have been shown to form tooth primordia in vitro," said Sharpe. "Surgical transplantation of these constructs into the mouth was shown to provide a suitable environment for their development into fully functional, erupted teeth."