HONG KONG — Chinese and American scientists have discovered that pandas have self-regenerating teeth and are studying its potential uses for human dentures and ceramics.

Giant panda tooth enamel can recover its structure at a microscopic and nanoscopic level to counter wear and tear, the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Metal Research has said.

This regeneration helps the animals to munch up to 38kg of tough bamboo stems every day. The fibrous plant makes up 99 per cent of a panda’s typical diet.

However, the study found that the enamel was not resistant to large-scale cracks.

The discovery was made by a research team led by Liu Zengqian, a scientist at the institute’s fracture mechanics laboratory.

The team also included members from the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Science and Technology of China and the Lanzhou University of Technology.

The scientists have been studying the properties of giant panda tooth enamel since 2016.

Panda tooth enamel is made of the mineral hydroxyapatite, whose fibres are arranged in a special structure that reduces the growth of small cracks, Liu was quoted as saying in the Chinese Academy of Sciences press release. Water molecules help the process along, it said.

The research team is using these findings to develop high-performance material for use in bionic human dentures and durable ceramics.

In 2015, researchers at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China found that pandas’ digestive systems had not evolved to adapt to their all-bamboo diet.

Despite spending up to 14 hours a day eating bamboo, giant pandas were able to digest only about 17 per cent of the bamboo they consumed, the researchers found.

Wild giant panda survival rates are threatened by the loss of their bamboo rainforest habitat, but the population has recovered after a high-profile captivity breeding programme backed by the Chinese government.

The animals are no longer classified as endangered. According to the latest census taken in 2014, more than 1,800 pandas are alive in the wild. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST