Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field of biomedical research, which combines life, engineering, and materials sciences, to progress the maintenance, repair, and replacement of diseased and damaged tissues. This ever-emerging area of research applies an understanding of normal tissue physiology to develop novel biomaterial and cell-based technologies for clinical and non-clinical applications. As evident in numerous medical disciplines, tissue engineering strategies are now being increasingly developed and evaluated as potential treatments of pathological conditions in dental sciences, particularly periodontology, endodontics, oral and craniofacial surgery, dental implantology, orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics, organ bioengineering, and transplant medicine. To further understand the concept of oral and craniofacial applications covered in the textbook, this introductory chapter will discuss the emergence of tissue engineering technology and our current understanding of the discipline, the challenges and recent developments within the field, particularly in stem cell-based therapy, and the prospective future application of translational tissue engineering products as routine therapies for tissue repair and regeneration. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.