grow new teeth using ultrasound transducer

20 minutes a day for four months to stimulate growth of a tooth’s root

Nanotechnology expert Dr. Jie Chen and his associate Dr. Ying Tsui from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta have developed a new ultrasound transducer to stimulate the growth of teeth and fix asymmetric jaw bones. The transducer utilizes LIPUS, which stands for “low-intensity pulsed ultrasound.” The miniature, wireless device does exactly what its name suggests: it sends pulses of ultrasound into biological matter, such as gums, muscles or bones to increase healing or stimulate growth of new tissue.

The transducer is a type of “system-on-a-chip,” which generally refers to an incredibly small system, like a microchip, that contains all the parts and electronic circuitry a system needs to run. Advances in system-on-a-chip technology allow scientists and researchers the opportunity to work on an increasingly smaller scale with computing power akin to computers from around a decade ago.

Perhaps the best part, other than growing new teeth, is the transducer doesn’t need to be surgically implanted. A patient need only apply the device topically for 20 minutes a day for four months to stimulate growth of a tooth’s root. So far it has been tested on 12 Canadian patients in the prototype stage. The team hopes to release a commercial form of the technology within the next two years.