A new way to regrow facial bone tissue

WE CAN REBUILD HIM, WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY. (HASANI-SADRABADI ET AL., SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE)

Trying to regrow bone in and around the mouth poses an extra challenge: Whatever material that’s used needs to attach in a wet environment and handle being exposed to blood and saliva. But scientists have come up with a new material that, in rats, successfully implanted in the oral cavity and rebuilt damaged bones around dental implants. The material was a hydrogel that contained stem cells that proliferated into craniofacial bone tissue. If researchers can develop such a material that can regrow bone, it’s thought that would be a better procedure than the current method of bone grafts.