Tissue engineering is a multidisciplinary field which involves the ‘application of the principles and methods of engineering and life sciences towards the fundamental understanding of structure-function relationships in normal and pathological mammalian tissues and the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain or improve tissue function’ This field builds on the interface between materials science and biocompatibility, and integrates cells, natural or synthetic scaffolds, and specific signals to create new tissues. This field builds on the interface between materials science and biocompatibility, and integrates cells, natural or synthetic scaffolds, and specific signals to create new tissues. Tissue engineering is viewed as synonymous to ‘‘regenerative dentistry’’ because the goal of tissue engineering is to restore tissue function through the delivery of stem cells, bioactive molecules, or synthetic tissue constructs engineered in the laboratory. Tissue engineering in dentistry takes several forms from gene transfer to osteoinduction, osteoconduction, regeneration of hard and soft tissues and integration of prosthetic implants with human bone. Majority of the dental and maxillofacial procedures range from simple tooth restorations to major reconstruction of facial soft and mineralized tissues and so far, materials and treatment options available have provided the dentist with a limited ability to replace diseased, infected, traumatized, and lost tissues. Continuous research is going on in the field of regenerative dentistry at both pre-clinical and clinical levels; with some remarkable and promising results, most of these efforts involve different forms of tissue engineering. Following are the various forms of tissue engineering related to regenerative dentistry.

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