Smile! A new Canadian tool can re-grow teeth say inventors Wed Jun 28, 4:47
PM ET
OTTAWA (AFP) - Snaggle-toothed hockey players and sugar lovers may soon
rejoice as Canadian scientists said they have created the first device able
to re-grow teeth and bones.
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.
"Right now, we plan to use it to fix fractured or diseased teeth, as well as
asymmetric jawbones, but it may also help hockey players or children who had
their tooth knocked out," Jie Chen, an engineering professor and
nano-circuit design expert, told AFP.
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.
The wireless device, smaller than a pea, must be activated for 20 minutes
each day for four months to stimulate growth, he said.
It can also stimulate jawbone growth to fix a person's crooked smile and may
eventually allow people to grow taller by stimulating bone growth, Chen
said.
Tarek El-Bialy, a new member of the university's dentistry faculty, first
tested the low-intensity pulsed ultrasound treatment to repair dental tissue
in rabbits in the late 1990s.
His research was published in the American Journal of Orthodontics and
Dentofacial Orthopedics and later presented at the World Federation of
Orthodontics in Paris in September 2005.
With the help of Chen and Ying Tsui, another engineering professor, the
initial massive handheld device was shrunk to fit inside a person's mouth.
It is still at the prototype stage, but the trio expects to commercialize it
within two years, Chen said.
The bigger version has already received approvals from American and Canadian
regulatory bodies, he noted.
Carol Ann
~Those who dared to dance were thought to be quite insane by those who could
not hear the music ~
Visit: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/action.shtml
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