DENTAL STEM CELL RESEARCH

Dental professionals are very excited
because scientists have found that our
teeth contain valuable stem cells that, if
properly stored, could potentially hold the
cure to a number of diseases, like
Parkinson’s, diabetes, and cancer, and with the future potential to help heal spinal cord injuries, as well.
Stem cell research has been immersed in
controversy over the years for many
reasons, with the main issues including the following:
• Embryonic stem cells carry technical
and ethical challenges.
• Bone marrow stem cells are very painful
to collect.
• Cord blood stem cells can only be
harvested at birth.

However, with the discovery of stem cells in teeth, an accessible and readily available source of stem cells has been identified.
What’s more, dental stem cells are very
convenient to collect, while possessing
similar benefits for the development of new restorative medical therapies.
Extracting teeth poses a much lower risk
than harvesting stem cells via more
invasive surgical procedures, and patients also experience far fewer complications.
Dentists can now be at the forefront of
regenerative medicine, and also serve as a valuable ally to the medical and research communities.
Dental stem cell research, collection, and
storage are gaining strong momentum in
the dental industry. For example, the
American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
(AAPD) Council on Clinical Affairs published a policy on stem cells that contained this statement:

The American Academy of Pediatric
Dentistry recognizes the emerging field of
regenerative medicine and encourages
dentists to follow future evidence-based
literature in order to educate parents about the collection, storage, viability, and use of dental stem cells with respect to
autologous regenerative therapies.
A child’s tooth under the pillow may be
worth a buck, but that same tooth, properly collected and stored, will be far more valuable in the future.

Courtesy: The Dental Geek