Most of us remember the tooth fairy! We would lose a baby tooth and then put the tooth under our pillows.
In the morning, cha-ching! We would find money under our pillows!
But, as it turns out, those baby teeth may be more valuable than we thought! In 2003, a study was done by Dr. Songtao Shi from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, he discovered that baby teeth contain one or two dozen stems cells!
The stem cells can be used later in life to help treat diseases. The stem cells in adult teeth are completely different than the ones found in baby teeth.
The tricky thing is that the tooth has to have an adequate blood supply before being frozen. You can’t just keep the teeth in a box and use them later for stem cells. The cells will degrade and lose their potency if not properly preserved.
The industry of Dental Stem Cell Banking is a way to store safely and protect baby teeth. Services available to parents like Store-A-Tooth, that will store your child’s teeth. The teeth are stored in a liquid nitrogen cryopreservation vault.
In the vault, the stem cells will remain intact for years. If the child, later in life, needs their stem cell,
the teeth can be removed from storage and shipped to their doctor! Services, like Store-A-Tooth, usually recommend that a dentist removes the tooth you want to save.
Check out Store-A-Tooth’s website for more information about preserving baby teeth! Your child
might need it someday – you never know!
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