Why You Should Keep Your Baby’s Milk Teeth
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All of us go through a phase when we learn of a certain someone called a ‘tooth fairy’. She is fond of milk teeth and gives money or grants secret wishes in exchange for that beloved milk tooth. All over the world, there are some interesting stories spun around this fictitious character, for making this phenomenon of losing teeth more interesting and less painful.
However, in this age, tooth fairies exist in flesh and blood. They are a team of experts who are qualified to extract stem cells from the broken tooth as well as cryopreserve them for ensuring a healthy future for your child. Modern day parenting is not just ensuring a good education and buying insurance policies, it is also about preserving your little one’s stem cells – umbilical and even dental.
According to the Mayo Clinic, stem cells are the basic component of the human body. These cells are the originators for other cells responsible for special bodily functions. The stem cells, under suitable conditions, can divide and generate more cells, termed as daughter cells. Daughter cells can either renew themselves to form more stem cells or they can differentiate to form cells that perform special functions such as forming blood vessels, heart muscles, fat tissues, neural cells, etc. Stem cells are the only cells in the body that can produce different cell types (1).
In 2003, Dr. Songtao Shi, an expert pedodontist, found dental stems cells by taking a sample from his daughter Julia’s broken milk tooth. He termed this newly discovered breed of stem cells as ‘Stem cells from Human Exfoliated Deciduous teeth’ or SHED.
“I dumped that tooth in my tube and drove to my lab in the night,” Dr. Songtao Shi narrated to Penn News. “The amount of tissue was tiny, but I did a stem cell isolation and extracted a small number of cells. They grew slowly at first, but three days later there were so many; I couldn’t believe it!”
The stem cells that he managed to extract from the dental pulp were found to be different from their previously researched stem cells extracted from other sources. He and his team of researchers found that SHED cells multiply slowly in the beginning but later their growth happens very fast. They are also found to be more robust and even capable of forming dental pulp, brain and fat tissue (2).
As per India’s first private dental stem cells bank stemade.com, stem cells derived from bone marrow and cord are being used to treat diseases for a long time now (3). Many diseases such as bone ailments, blood cancer, and other blood-related conditions have found a cure by preserving one’s stem cells. However, experts say that with the discovery of stem cells found in the dental pulp, many other critical conditions may find a cure. Some of the diseases that can be potentially be cured and are under experimental research are Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, kidney and liver diseases, lung and heart diseases, eye diseases, hair regeneration, etc. If such life-threatening ailments could be beaten black and blue by taking a simple step towards dental stem cell banking, wouldn’t it be the wisest one to take?
“Currently there are no medically approved regenerative treatments known using dental stem cells”, says Ann Eshenaur Spolarich, RDH, Ph.D. and the associate director for the National Institute of Dental Hygiene Research. “However research has shown that dental stem cells can be used to regenerate a variety of tissue types in the body,” she adds. Highlighting on the need for dental stem cell banking, Dr. Spolarich says that “The advantage of storing stem cells from your own dental pulp is that they are unique to you. Should they be needed in the future for a medical treatment, you will use your own cells, eliminating risk” (4).
So, the next time you plan to give away that precious baby tooth of your child to an imaginary tooth fairy, head to a dental stem cell bank instead. By doing this you would be giving your child a priceless gift with the help of real-life tooth fairies. No matter what life throws on the way of your child’s health, you will play the responsible parent and take the challenges head on!
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