The predictions follow successful experiments to grow mouse teeth in a laboratory dish.

Scientists believe the technique could benefit humans within a decade.

Ultimately, they hope to be able to trigger the body to re-grow lost or diseased teeth at the place in the mouth where they belong, using gene therapy.

"We think we can make synthetic teeth in a dish and be able to supply an incisor, a premolar or a molar to the clinician for implant," said Dr Mary MacDougall of the University of Texas Health Science Centre, San Antonio.

"The far-stretch of the research is to be able to induce the tissue in the mouth, at the site where the tooth is lost, to make a new tooth," she told BBC News Online.

Tooth regrowth

The first step of the research is to study how mouse teeth grow and develop in the laboratory.

Already, at least 25 different genes have been identified that are involved in this process.

However, growing human teeth in the lab will be more complex than growing mouse teeth.