A nice, bright smile: Scientists use lasers to regrow teeth

And they say their concept – using laser light to entice the body's own stem cells into action – may offer enormous promise beyond just dentistry in the field of regenerative medicine. The researchers used a low-power laser to coax dental stem cells to form dentin, the hard tissue similar to bone that makes up most of a tooth, demonstrating the process in studies involving rats and mice and using human cells in a laboratory. So I think it has potential for great impact in clinical dentistry," researcher Praveen Arany of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said on Friday. "Our treatment modality does not introduce anything new to the body, and lasers are routinely used in medicine and dentistry, so the barriers to clinical translation are low," added Harvard University bioengineering professor David Mooney.