THE DENTAL STEM CELL ADVANTAGE
The presence of stem cell in milk tooth or the wisdom tooth was found more by accident in 2003 by Dr. Songtao Shi, an American stem cell scientist and a former pedodontist.
His 6-year-old daughter decided her father should take out her wobbly milk tooth rather than her mother. When he glanced in the tooth, he noticed the pulp which was still living. In his laboratory, Dr. Shi extracted cells from the pulp and found that the right culture, some of the cells started to grow.
Stem cells can be manipulated to form bone cells, nerve and blood vessels.
Earlier stem cells were extracted from the umbilical cord. Advantage of extracting stem cell from milk tooth, it is painless and you get multiple attempts at extracting stem cell every time a tooth falls out. They are also purer than the cord blood, which is also a bit more complex to handle. Both bone marrow and umbilical stem cell are slower to grow. Although there are only 100 stem cells in a tooth compared to millions in the umbilical cord, culture can multiply it to a million, the minimum required for cell therapy.
How to preserve milk tooth for stem cells:
• Once the tooth falls off, it should be immediately placed in a special vial ( provided by a lab).
• It should then be filled with cold milk. Milk is nutrient rich and helps the cells to stay alive.
• Then it is sent to the lab, where the cells are extracted, cultured and then stored at -170 ° C.
• These cultures can be of use later to treat various conditions in the future.
The whole process doesn’t come cheap. It costs £950 to extract the cell and £90 to preserve it per year.
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i want more information regarding collection of dental pulp stem sample,it’s processing & culture of these cells.
Stem cells from the developing third molar tooth bud can be collected during a brief minimally invasive procedure prior to calcification of the enamel. This will mean that there will be epithelial stem cells prior to becoing enamel forming cells, cells that produce dentin, periodontal ligament and pulp.
Typical collection from pulp of deciduous teeth only yield mesenchymal stem cells at a later (more differentiate) state.
Stem cells from the developing third molar tooth bud can be collected during a brief minimally invasive procedure prior to calcification of the enamel. This will mean that there will be epithelial stem cells prior to becoing enamel forming cells, cells that produce dentin, periodontal ligament and pulp.
Typical collection from pulp of deciduous teeth only yield mesenchymal stem cells at a later (more differentiated) state.