We all have gone through the experience of losing our baby teeth one way or another. Those last few wiggles to get out that pesky tooth were the only thing standing between you and a visit from the tooth fairy.
However, in this ever-changing world, baby teeth are causing quite the fuss as recent research is showing that our baby teeth, even our wisdom teeth, may have stem cells that could be used in future applications of regenerative medicine!
People are scrambling to collect their children’s baby teeth, and sure enough businesses are there to streamline the process and capitalize on their desire to ensure their child’s future safety. So what exactly are these businesses promising their clients, and what are the possibilities these dental stem cells pose? Sit back and let’s explore this fascinating development!
What is all the hype about? Regenerative medicine!
They come in many names: “Store-a-tooth”, “Stemsave”, “Bioeden”, “Toothbank”, the list goes on, and they all promise that they are the ones you should trust to collect, cryogenically freeze, and store your children’s dental stem cells so that your kid can have their own “personalized medicine” for the future, should they have a previously incurable, serious illness that regenerative medicine will know how to cure in the future, possibly!
As long as you are able to pay a one-time fee of over $500 with an annual renewal fee of over $100 each year their services can be yours!
Stem cells are remarkable, but they have their uses
Stems cells are amazing for sure; they possess the ability to self-renew and are able to change themselves into other different types of cells, but not just any cell, that is subject to where they are found in the body.
For example, Hematopoietic stem cells or (HSC’s) also called Hemocytoblasts, which are found in the red bone marrow (try not to think about scarily long needles entering your lower spine), are the type of stem cells that can turn into all the types of blood cells we have in our body.
Therefore, the dental stem cells are actually “Mesenchymal” stem cells, which are the kind that can turn into bone, cartilage, muscle, and fat cells. Funnily enough, they are the types of cells that make up your oral ecosystem, and therefore it is entirely possible that “regenerative dentistry” as the field is coming to be termed may, in the future, come up with amazing applications for aiding with many dental/oral related afflictions.
What can we conclude from all this? A little reality, but a sincere wish for the best!
It only seems healthy to be a little skeptical of grandiose promises regarding the promise that dental stem cells may cure any disease in the future due to the little research which has been done to actually apply them, according to the Journal of Natural Science, Biology, and Medicine.
Of course the cryogenic firms hold, “they just haven’t discovered how to yet”, and while that may be, regenerative medicine has a little further to go before we can definitely say that we should freeze all our children’s baby teeth stem cells.
There is one hope though, other stem cell firms, such as for embryonic and bone marrow stem cells are often altruistic donations in public banks. Therefore, when regenerative medicine does show fruit on the front of dental stem cells, you can be sure that it is more than likely that dental stem cells would be available to you should the worst happen and should you want them.
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