Dr. Mogell Dental Blog

Boca Raton Cosmetic Dentistry

Growing A TMJ!

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

TMJ Help for the Future

In today’s world of advanced medicine achievements have been made to replace broken down hips, knees and of course teeth with implants. One of the joints that has not been as predictable to replace with an implant has been the temporomandibular joint. Now a different solution to regenerate and repair a temporomandibular joint may become a reality.
At the Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science a research team has demonstrated the ability to grow a temporomandibular joint from stem calls derived from bone marrow. This study was recently displayed in the online Early Edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, a professor of biomedical engineering, because of the temporomandibular joint intricacy it cannot be easily grafted form other bones in the patient’s own body. She expressed that "The availability of personalized bone grafts engineered from the patient's own stem cells would revolutionize the way we currently treat these defects,"

It is Dr. Vunjak-Novakovic’s hope that her technique will be to be applied to other areas that are also difficult to repair with current implant methods. If you have any questions regarding solutions for treating TMJ, please do not hesitate to call us for an appointment at 561-394-9000. We will help you find an approach to treating your TMJ that works for you!

Kenneth A. Mogell, D.M.D.