Grow Your Own Replacement Teeth

A group of British scientists suggest that you will soon be able to replace missing teeth by growing replacements.
The procedure is fairly simple. Doctors take stem cells from the patient. These are unique in their ability to form any of the tissues that make up the body. By carefully nurturing the stem cells in a laboratory, scientists can nudge the cells down a path that will make them grow into a tooth. After a couple of weeks, the ball of cells, known as a bud, is ready to be implanted. Tests reveal what type of tooth - for example, a molar or an incisor - the bud will form.

The procedure holds great promise in the U.K., where "the average Briton over 50 has lost 12 teeth from a set of 32."

Link.  Image credit to Coverbrowser, which has a collection of 470 Mad covers.

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I failed to take note of the date at the original link. Mea culpa. But after searching stem cells/teeth today, I see that more work has been done, and there are now proposals to bank children's stem cells so that their teeth can be regrown as adults, as has been done in the mice noted by Miss Cellania. One doubts that such would be covered by the new health care reform legislation...
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Where I live (southeast Kentucky), most people will have a tooth pulled rather than filled. No only because it's less painful, but mainly because it's less expensive. I know very few people over 50 with all their teeth. I have all mine, but they have been repaired extensively (and expensively).
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Gosh I don't know any over 50s with 12 teeth missing!! (And I'm British)
Where I live, we've had fluoride in the water since the 50s and we have the best teeth in the country.
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