Can Adults Regrow Teeth? The Latest Science Behind Tooth Regeneration

Losing an adult tooth has always meant one thing: replacing it. Implants, bridges and dentures do a good job of restoring how a mouth looks and functions, but none of them gives a patient back a real, living tooth. That might be starting to change, at least in the research world, where scientists are asking a question that would have sounded like science fiction a decade ago: can the body be persuaded to grow a new tooth on its own?

The honest answer, for now, is no. There’s no approved treatment anywhere that can regrow a tooth that’s been lost or badly damaged. What has shifted is that this idea has moved out of pure theory and into active clinical research, with several different approaches, from antibody drugs to lab-grown dental tissue, edging closer to real-world testing.

A Japanese drug is leading the way

The treatment furthest along is TRG035, an antibody therapy being developed in Japan by Toregem BioPharma. The science behind it is genuinely interesting: TRG035 works by blocking a protein called USAG-1, which normally acts as a brake on tooth development. The theory is that most people carry dormant tooth buds that never fully develop, and switching off that brake might allow them to grow into proper teeth.

This isn’t just speculation. Animal studies have already shown extra teeth developing in mice, ferrets and dogs after similar treatment, which is what gave researchers enough confidence to move into human trials. Kyoto University Hospital began a Phase I trial in October 2024, recruiting adult men aged 30 to 64 who were each missing at least one molar. The goal at this stage was simply to establish whether the drug is safe, not whether it actually regrows teeth.

It’s worth being clear on that point: passing a safety trial is a long way from proving a drug works. Toregem has confirmed that Phase I met its safety objectives, though the full data hasn’t been published yet, and TRG035 still hasn’t been shown to regenerate a human tooth.

Where the research goes from here

The next milestone came in August 2026, when Japan’s medicines regulator, the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, signed off on the clinical trial notification for a Phase IIa study. That trial, still awaiting ethics approval and with no confirmed start date, will look quite different from what many people might expect. Rather than adults who’ve lost teeth to decay or gum disease, it will focus on 24 children with a condition called congenital tooth agenesis, where teeth simply never develop in the first place.

That’s an important distinction. The excitement around TRG035 has largely centred on the idea of adults regaining teeth lost to everyday causes, but the science is currently being tested in a very different patient group. Researchers have floated 2030 as a rough target for when a treatment might become available, though that timeline depends entirely on whether later trials show it actually works, and on winning regulatory approval.

Other routes to regenerating teeth

TRG035 isn’t the only avenue being explored. Stem cell research is looking at ways to rebuild dental and craniofacial tissue more broadly, with early applications in bone and soft-tissue repair that could eventually extend to regenerating whole teeth.

Enamel is another focus area. Scientists have managed to grow stem-cell-based organoids that produce the same proteins involved in natural enamel formation, raising the long-term possibility of a synthetic material that could repair damaged teeth or even function as a kind of living filling. Alongside this, researchers are studying how dental cells organise themselves during development, work that could prove valuable for any future regenerative treatment that relies on cells building tooth structures from scratch.

So, will adults ever regrow their own teeth?

The progress is real, but it’s important not to get ahead of the science. There’s currently no way for adults to regrow a lost tooth, and conventional dental treatments remain the only option available. What has genuinely changed is that whole-tooth regeneration is now being taken seriously as a subject of clinical research, rather than dismissed as a distant idea.

Should these approaches eventually prove both safe and effective, they could reshape how dentistry treats certain kinds of tooth loss, moving from repairing and replacing teeth to encouraging the body to grow biological replacements of its own. That future isn’t here yet, but for the first time, there’s real research trying to work out how to get there.

Source: Adapted from Dentistry.co.uk: “Tooth regrowth in adults: what we know so far