• The common dental diseases and their treatment methods are introduced. • Various cells and materials used to realize tooth regeneration are summarized. • The mechanisms of tooth regeneration were also summarized and discussed. • Clinical applications and clinical trials have been discussed. • Perspectives for future development of tooth regeneration strategies are proposed. Tooth defect and loss are common clinical diseases in stomatology. With the extension of life expectancy, there is an increasing demand for tooth tissue and whole tooth regeneration. Compared with traditional oral prosthetic treatment, tooth regeneration has unique advantages and has become one of the hotspots towards oral biomedical treatment. In this review, we discussed the development and challenges of tooth regeneration based on cells and materials, including tooth enamel, dentin, dental pulp, cementum, dentin-pulp complex, and the whole tooth regeneration, in order to provide a comprehensive, up-to-date, illustrative overview of tooth regeneration issues. The mechanisms of the regeneration were also summarized and discussed. Moreover, this review hints the future perspective and research direction of tooth regeneration in the challenging field of regenerative dentistry.