If you haven’t heard of dental stem cell banking before, it’s a process which involves the cryogenic storing of baby (primary) teeth or impacted wisdom teeth, after removal, for the purpose of possibly using them at a later date, in the event that health issues arise. Even if your family has no history of disease or poor health, it’s a worthwhile practice to engage in, because banking dental stem cells could have an enormous impact later in life for your child.
There is something very special about primary teeth and impacted wisdom teeth, as they contain stem cells, which are situated in tissue inside the dental pulp chamber. These stem cells serve as building blocks in the body, and researchers are hopeful that they have the capability of developing into every kind of tissue found in the body.
Why Dental Stem Cell Banking Is Important
Scientists have demonstrated that when stem cells are isolated from the dental pulp, they have the ability to regenerate and repair tissue which has become damaged or has just undergone natural aging to become less effective. There is hope that these stem cells can be used to restore tendons, bone, cartilage, muscle, and brain tissue, as well as having tremendous usefulness in dental applications.
In fact, there is hope that the stem cells that are contained inside baby teeth or wisdom teeth can actually hold the key to treating future diseases, such as various types of cancer as well as autoimmune diseases. Because stem cells are capable of immunomodulatory functions, they can be useful in the treatment of allergic diseases, autoimmune diseases, and inflammatory diseases. Although strictly experimental right now, the thinking is that eventually almost any kind of illness that you could become susceptible to in later life, can be treated by the stem cells that are banked by saving primary teeth and wisdom teeth.
Other Uses For Stem Cells
As amazing as that list of medical treatments is, scientists are optimistic that even more uses will be developed for stem cells which have been preserved from baby teeth or wisdom teeth. Researchers have discovered that these same stem cells hold tremendous promise in treating such severe conditions as spinal cord injuries, craniofacial defects, corneal damage, tooth loss, Type I Diabetes, heart attack, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Additional research is underway to discover the precise medical treatments which would be necessary to treat a number of medical conditions that are today deemed either difficult or impossible to manage.
How Stem Cells Are Stored
The wisdom teeth or baby teeth are stored in a process called cryopreservation, which involves isolating them from dental tissues where they are originally contained. This process itself holds a great deal of promise for use in regenerative therapies for various body parts, and is therefore still being studied. During cryopreservation, stem cells are stored in a cold environment, which preserves the integrity of the cells indefinitely, until they are needed later in life.
When stem cells are isolated from the dental tissue, a set of standard protocols are used, which are equivalent to current manufacturing procedures and practices, to ensure high quality. Preserving the stem cells is therefore a kind of health insurance, since scientists are hopeful that someday these cells will be able to be used to regenerate damaged tissue anywhere in the body. By storing your child’s stem cells when their baby teeth are about to fall out or after removal of impacted wisdom teeth, you have an opportunity to plan for the recovery of good health in the future, should those stem cells ever be needed.
Where Can You Have Dental Stem Cells Banked?
One of the best places in the country for having dental stem cells retrieved is at the Good Samaritan Dental Implant Institute, where ultra-careful methods are used to faithfully preserve the integrity of stem cells. We partner with StemSave as our number one cryogenics lab for banking the stem cells once they are retrieved. This keeps them in pristine condition and ready to use at a moment’s notice, when technology will allow us to move ahead with these types of treatment. If you’d like some rock-solid health insurance for the future, consider having your child’s dental stem cells retrieved and banked through Good Samaritan Dental Implant Institute.