Modern dental technology has given patients many options for replacing a missing tooth. Today’s dental implants are strong, reliable, and can generally last you for the rest of your life. However, it is entirely possible that dentists may soon be able to give you an implant that is in every way identical to the one you lost.
The science is still a big immature, but genetic researchers are hard at work on developing an effective process for cloning a fully organic tooth and implanting it into a patient’s mouth. A group in London has already had some success in growing a tooth from stem cells. In the future, a dentist may be able to take a sample of your own cells, grow a new tooth specially designed to fill a gap in your mouth, and implant it. The advantage of such a tooth is that it would be able to take on blood flow, absorbing nutrients and repairing itself exactly like your natural teeth. It will take some time before this process becomes commercially available, but it’s a promising outlook for the future of dental implants.