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Comment by ganzuul | Hacker News Reader

So it's not at all far-fetched to grow new teeth for humans then. Just need to get it working in the right place.

It's self-evident that humans can grow teeth, since we almost all have them, and many women grow extra sets in their uteruses. The devil is in the details of growing them on demand where desired.

> many women grow extra sets in their uteruses

What.

It's a pregnancy reference. I hope.

It's technically correct, but they tend to come attached to a baby :)

That can't be right; babies are not usually born with teeth.

Well, yes and no. No, in that babies aren't born with exposed teeth in their mouth. Yes, in that babies have two sets of teeth in their skull when born.

Adult teeth start forming at 20 weeks in the womb. Babies are born with two full sets of teeth, they're just not quite finished yet and are buried under the gums and in the jaw bone. There are images of child skulls with the front of the bone removed to show all of the teeth packed into the bone underneath. It's actually pretty unsettling.

Another reference to teratomas, which are often found during ultrasounds during pregnancy[0]

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teratoma

Got the same reaction. Found this: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/researchers-in-museums/2013/03/04/pu...

Well that holds even more wat material.

> [Māui] proposes to kill Hine-nui-te-pō by entering her vagina and exiting through her mouth whilst she is sleeping

As others pointed out, the statement "many women grow extra sets in their uteruses" is misleading at best.

The kind interpretation is that you are thinking of Teratoma (mentioned above). The less kind is that you are thinking of that cheesy black-comedy horror movie from the 2000s.

Women are amazing! They’re basically people factories.

my father had 3 sets of teeth

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