Saving your child's teeth for their future health
- stem cell banking
Peterborough Dentists in conjunction with BioEDEN are now offering a pioneering service which involves collecting stem cells from teeth which in the future could be used to treat illnesses and disease.
Tooth cell banking is a method of extracting stem cells from baby teeth (also known as milk teeth), and placing them into cryogenic (frozen) storage. The stem cells have the ability to develop into many different type of tissue, including skin, nerve, muscle, fat, cartilage and tendon, and can potentially be used to replace diseased and damaged tissues in the body without rejection.
The stem cells can be used, if needed, by either the person who the tooth originally came from, or if compatible with their immediate family.
From a client’s perspective, the process is very simple. All you have to do is make an appointment for your child with one of the practices by phoning us or completing this form. This should be done when one or more of their baby teeth start to become loose.
Once you have received the collection kit from BioEDEN, the dentist will arrange to extract the loose baby tooth, and send it off in the special collection kit to stem cell experts BioEDEN, who harvest the stem cells from the tooth and cryogenically store them.
Principal Dentist, Christopher Sprinz, said: “It is important to extract the tooth when loose rather than wait for it to fall out naturally, as it increases the chances of being able to collect healthy, viable stem cells. It is sometimes possible to use wisdom teeth for stem cell recovery as well”, he said.
“We are really excited about this new development. It is amazing to think that the cells from a child’s tooth could be collected today, and then used years later to significantly improve the health and well-being of that same person.”
“We felt it was important that our clients and their children should be able to benefit from such a fantastic development, which is why we are now offering this service at all three of our practices.”
To find out more, please contact the practice, or visit the BioEDEN website at www.bioeden.com.
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