THE BONE GUYS JUNE 2022 NEWSLETTER
#HOTBONEGUYSSUMMER
Shall Bone Guys compare thee to a summer’s day?
Oh. You’re cool on that one?
Okay.
Nonetheless, we’re calling it early and taking a head first dive into everyone’s favorite season of sun and surf and days on the lake throwing cold ones to your chicken-fighting friends.
That’s the spirit we’re embracing for our bright and shiny June issue, full of light summer reading in the form of need-to-know dental news, funny bits and pieces related to teeth and smiles, and an all-encompassing love for our clients and customers, as well as general hilarity.
This is what we do and we love to do it. We’d also love to share your own dental fun stories, favorite photos, cartoons, or anything else you’d like to see appear in the next newsletter.
THE MOLAR EXPRESS
—Ancient Mayans, rich and poor alike, used to have dentists drill their teeth and glue gemstones like jade, turquoise, gold, jet, or hematite to them.
—A California woman was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay over $30,000 for punching a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, breaking her teeth, in 2021 after being told to wear a mask and fasten her seatbelt.
—Actor Ewan McGregor tells a “doozy” of a story about his stunt double having his teeth knocked out during the filming of the Star Wars film, “Attack of the Clones.”
—Crocodiles in a South African lake are being found with missing or broken teeth, likely due to lead-based fishing weights.
—Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten got his nickname from the decaying, green front teeth he supposedly sported as a teen.
—A British woman who flew to Iran for discount dental work ended up with teeth that look “like piano keys.”
—An influential 18th century French dentist recounts using urine as a rinse for his patients, making us happy we were born much, much later.
—A New York dentist on Madison Avenue is being sued by former employees for his graphic talk about sex and sexual assault around the office.
In The Future, Dentists May Just Regrow Your Teeth
Anyone who has ever found themselves squirming in a dentist’s chair while getting a filling or having a cracked tooth repaired has most likely shared some variation on the same thought.
“Isn’t there an easier way?”
The good news: Someday soon, there just might be, as science is busy working on it.
Researchers in Belgium are studying how to grow dental stem cells in a lab, looking to the day when tooth enamel, the tooth's outer layer which does not regrow like some tissue does, or even entire teeth, can be replaced.
A multipage study in Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences details this research, which involves stem cells extracted from the dental follicle, a rich source of dental stem cells, to create a 3D model of how to grow teeth in a lab setting. Future dental professionals could use such a discovery to grow and produce additional cells.
Which theoretically means that a person can lose one of their teeth or have a wisdom tooth removed, and that stem cells from those lost teeth could be frozen and stored in a biobank. Once the process is put into practice, scientists could use those stem cells to regrow someone’s teeth for the next time they catch a fly ball in the molars or once old age has ravaged their smile.
Then it’s time for a withdrawal from the biobank and the creation of a brand new shiny tooth.
Even cooler, unless you’re in the fillings industry, these stem cells could be used to repair a broken or cavity-ridden tooth, growing the types of stem cells that would simply patch the hole. Using the body’s own stem cells would imaginably produce a healthier tooth than one carrying or replaced by a foreign object, such as a filling or crown.
Of course, this is still sort of sci-fi/Jetsons territory, with loads of lab tests and clinical trials still needed. Even then, the costs of bio-banking and repair would have to make sense for the consumer.
Some doctors, however, think we’ll see it in our own lifetimes.
May we all live long enough to see it.
That and robot maids.
HUMOR HAS IT....
ABOUT US
We are a family enterprise distributing dental products from a marvelous group of select companies—whether it be a non-profit source of restorative biologics, a high quality & cost-effective surgical solution, or simply a product referral.
We’re focused on education and helping others succeed while enjoying everything quirky and special about the dental community.
We love the world of dentistry nearly as much as we love the dentists we count ourselves so lucky to work with. Let’s join hands and celebrate all things teeth, from the practical to the extremely weird and everything in between.
A REFERRAL REWARD FOR OUR READERS
Contact Colin Browne at Maxxeus with a referral in order to win a special prize!
MEET LAURA
INSTAGRAM POST OF THE MONTH:
“Pre CDA… bone guy breakfast! A special gift from the girls. 😊”
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P.S.
Finland’s sculpture park of Veijo Rönkkönen, near the country’s Russian border, contains the most important set of pieces of contemporary folk art in the nation. The scary facial expressions of the concrete statues are part of what makes it so strange and exceptional.
“Some of them also have real human teeth, and sound effects that make the whole park even creepier.”
