I have too many fillings.
You know, I’ve always expected to see a couple of things in my lifetime: a cure for baldness and a way to scientifically regrow teeth.
For both of those, I expected the solution to be some kind of biological one–we would trick the body into regrowing these things the same way it had grown them in the first place.
Well, the first one isn’t really there yet1, but based on this article maybe the second one is here:
The researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton filed patents earlier this month in the United States for the tool based on low-intensity pulsed ultrasound technology after testing it on a dozen dental patients in Canada.
Ultrasound? Who would have suspected a cure would come from physics2 and not from biology or chemistry?
I wonder if this means that at some point in the next decade I will have much less amalgam in my mouth. That would be cool.
Of course the article does say:
Chen helped create the tiny ultrasound machine that gently massages gums and stimulates tooth growth from the root once inserted into a person’s mouth, mounted on braces or a removable plastic crown.
…and I suspect that “tooth growth from the root” means “we can fix the ones that are knocked out, or just have cavities, but those root canal teeth are still non-vital, enjoy your crowns.”
Maybe next week I’ll hear about how mathematicians have found a formula that cures baldness.
[via]
- And I wonder if it ever will be–what’s the incentive for companies to find a real cure when they can keep the vain on the hook for a constant $X/week for Rogaine? A real cure would cut off that profit stream.(back)
- Yes, I know that there’s a lot of biology involved, but come on… it’s ultrasound. That’s physics.(back)
Ben
June 30th, 2006 at 11:56 am
There’s a part of me that keeps imagining this being misused to grow teeth in inappropriate places, or to unmanageable lengths.
June 30th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the body-mod and goth vampire crowds getting really into fang stimulation. That kind of thing, with some different subculture, is what always happens with new tech.