Tooth regeneration: challenges and opportunities for biomedical material research

Abstract

Tooth regeneration presents many challenges to researchers in the fields of biology, medicine and material science. This review considers the opportunities for biomedical material research to contribute to this multidisciplinary endeavor. We present short summaries and an overview on the collective knowledge of tooth developmental biology, advances in stem-cell research, and progress in the understanding of the tooth biomineralization principles as they provide the foundation for developing strategies for reparative and regenerative medicine. We emphasize that various biomaterials developed via biomimetic strategies have great potential for tooth tissue engineering and regeneration applications. The current practices in tooth tissue engineering approaches and applications of biomimetic carriers or scaffolds are also discussed.