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Teeth are a great source of stem cells for banking. The dental pulp in your child’s baby and wisdom teeth is an excellent source of mesenchymal stem cells, one of the most well-understood, widely researched and promising types of stem cells. And it’s easy to collect a baby tooth that’s naturally falling out or a wisdom tooth that’s being extracted.
Banking mesenchymal stem cells from your child’s teeth is less invasive than harvesting them from other sources. Stem cells can be collected from baby teeth as they naturally loosen, from wisdom teeth being extracted, or from teeth extracted for orthodontic reasons.
The Early Research Is In: Stem Cells Are Going To Change The Future Of Medicine
Right now, around the world, more than1,700 clinical trials are under way or completed, demonstrating the use of stem cells to treat diseases, to heal injuries, and to grow replacement tissues like bone, nerves, tendons, muscles, and blood vessels. This emerging field of treatments and therapies is called regenerative medicine.
Imagine a future where serious conditions like type 1 diabetes are treated with a combination of drugs and regenerative medicine. Imagine skin and bone grafts created from the patient’s own cells. Imagine treating age-related conditions like arthritis, dementia, and Alzheimer’s using cells from the patient’s teeth that were banked when they were young.
While there is still a lot more to discover about the attributes and potential of mesenchymal stem cells, it does appear that the younger the stem cells, the more potent their future ability to generate replacement tissue and heal the body. The younger the cells are, the more times they can divide, the faster they grow, the more potential they have to turn into different types of cells, and the lower the risk due to complications of aging. Freezing cells in a youthful state preserves their future ability to generate replacement tissue and heal the body.
A Mother’s Take On Regenerative Medicine
Georgia Spiropoulos is a member of the Board of Directors of the Northwest Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and a speaker at the Children With Diabetes conferences.
A recent study in the Journal of Dental Research indicating stem cells from teeth may someday produce a cure for diabetes offers renewed promise for her 15-year-old daughter, Alexa. For Alexa and the nearly one million Americans afflicted with type 1 or juvenile diabetes, regenerative medicine could mean a world of a difference.
“When I learned of the research being done around dental stem cells, particularly in the area of diabetes, I was filled with hope for my daughter. As any parent of a child suffering from a chronic disease knows, hope sometimes comes from the most unlikely places, so it is important that we remain open to exploring promising new discoveries like dental stem cells.” – Georgia Spiropoulos
You Plan For Your Child’s Education, Plan For Their Health Care Too
From teaching healthy eating habits to instilling strong values, you already do so much to prepare your child for a happy and healthy life. Banking stem cells may not be as obvious as saving for college, but it could mean just as much to your child’s future well-being and quality of life.
Store-A-Tooth™, the industry-leading stem cell banking service for preserving the stem cells found in baby teeth and wisdom teeth, is a service of Provia Laboratories, LLC. Available through dentists across the U.S., our laboratory is FDA-registered, CLIA-certified, and AABB-accredited.
As the research community learns more and more about stem cells and dental stem cells specifically, our goal at Provia Labs is to make this information available to you so that you can make the most informed decisions possible.
For more information about the power of dental stem cells and how you can enhance your child’s future health care, visit www.store-a-tooth.com, talk with a clinical specialist at 305-408-2952, or talk with your dentist.
