Your child’s teeth are excellent sources of stem cells. Just like cord blood and bone marrow, dental stem cells may hold tremendous healing power and tissue regeneration abilities, similar to what you find in a newborn’s umbilical cord blood.
If your child is about to lose a tooth or have one removed, you need to know about the lifesaving possibilities of Store-a-Tooth stem cell harvesting.
Dental Stem Cells vs. Embryonic Stem Cells
Until now, most extracted teeth were either discarded, placed in biohazardous waste, or given to the tooth fairy for safekeeping. But with the possibility of stem cell use in the future, harvesting these cells from teeth is easier and more affordable than that cord blood at the time of a child’s birth. And since dental stem cells differ from embryonic stem cells in the way they are collected, there are no additional ethical concerns to keep in mind.
How are Dental Stem Cells Collected?
There are stem cells in all teeth. Since children are consistently losing teeth, they can sometimes be harvested from baby teeth immediately after they are removed from the mouth. Ideally, we would have them come into the office to wiggle the tooth out, or we can harvest the cells if the tooth is being extracted for therapeutic purposes.
Additionally, we can harvest stem cells from healthy teeth at the time of a dental extraction. If you’re wondering why healthy teeth would need to be extracted, it’s fairly common during wisdom tooth removal or if a tooth is removed for orthodontic purposes (due to severe crowding.)
When the tooth is removed, we use a special Tooth Transport Kit to send it to a lab, where the stem cells are removed, processed, and frozen until they are needed at a later date.
An Affordable Investment to Make
If you’ve considered stem cell therapy or missed the window of opportunity for collecting cord blood at the time of your child’s birth, Store-A-Tooth is approximately 1/3 of the price and can be performed later, when your child is older. The cell banking system keeps the tissues preserved in a cryopreservation facility until they are needed for medical use.
Having your child’s own stem cells on hand in the instance of future medical needs is a priceless investment that parents can make for their family. To date, there are thousands of studies demonstrating how stem cells can be used to treat conditions like organ repair, leukemia, and genetic blood disorders.
As medical research and stem cell therapy progresses, patients who have banked stem cells will be at an advantage for future medical therapies.
Store-a-Tooth Stem Cell Therapy in Salem
At Paradise Dental Associates, we offer the Store-a-Tooth stem cell therapy option to all patients who qualify for this cutting-edge therapy. Again, the extracted teeth need to be completely healthy, so wisdom tooth removal or orthodontic extractions are two of the most common scenarios where you will have this opportunity.
If you’ve had reservations about stem cell treatments or using donor cells, the Store-a-Tooth approach allows families to access state-of-the-art care in the future without such concerns.
The nerve tissues of teeth have what are called “Mesenchymal” cells. These are one of the most promising types of stem cells and are found in bone and blood vessels, such as the dental pulp (and in teeth, they come in very high concentrations.)
What to Expect
Our dental team will talk you through the Store-a-Tooth process and pricing for cryopreservation services. Since it’s only possible to harvest stem cells from healthy teeth, this option won’t be available if we remove teeth that are dying, abscessed, or severely decayed. Additionally, we cannot harvest cells from a baby tooth that has already fallen out days prior. The best opportunity is to elect this service as an add-on to an already scheduled orthodontic extraction or wisdom tooth removal.
Nothing about you or your child’s dental appointment will change. We will simply place the tooth into the Store-a-Tooth transportation materials immediately after it is removed and process it from there.
Harvesting dental stem cells is non-invasive, compared to potentially gathering them from bone marrow. Since your child’s teeth are going to fall out or be removed anyway, it’s worthwhile to take advantage of this opportunity to reduce medical costs and procedure needs in the future.
Learn More About Dental Stem Cells
Are you looking for a dental stem cell harvesting service in Salem, Swampscott, or Marblehead? Call Paradise Dental Associates today to request more information or to schedule a consultation with our family dentists.
