BY MELISSA GRANT, RACHEL SAMMONS & ANNA DUMITRIU

Delving deep into bacterial world of the mouth, Microbe Mouth explored healthy and unhealthy mouths and pondered the future of dentistry.

Scientists Melissa Grant and Rachel Sammons from the University of Birmingham’s School of Dentistry, along with bioartist Anna Dumitriu, revealed teeth they have grown using bacteria in the lab. At hands-on workshops, participants through glazed their own ceramic teeth using glazes and stains derived from various bacterial species .

The bacteria used for glazing included Porphyromonas gingivalis (known to give you gum disease!) that introduced an iron containing light brown stain to the glaze. The bacteria was sterilised prior to use.

Contributions from the workshop were fired and incorporated into an installation on display alongside the lab grown tooth 21-30 November in the Dental Institute on Guy’s Campus at King’s College London.

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