Bioengineered teeth from tooth bud cells.

Advances in tissue engineering and materials science have led to significant progress in hard and soft tissue repair and regeneration. Studies demonstrate the successful application of tissue engineering for bioengineering dental tissues. The ability to apply tissue engineering to repair or regenerate dental tissues and even whole teeth is becoming a reality. Current efforts focus on directing the formation of bioengineered dental tissues and whole teeth of predetermined size and shape. Advances in dental progenitor cell characterizations, combined with improved methods of fabricating biodegradable scaffold materials, bring closer the goal of making tooth tissue engineering a clinically relevant practice.