Will keeping your child's baby teeth save their life one day?
When Kyran Bracken’s six-year-old son, Charlie, loses his first milk
tooth, the tooth fairy won’t be getting a look in. Instead, the moment
it comes out the tooth will be packaged up and sent to a lab in Cheshire
for use in a future health emergency.
‘None of us knows what is round the corner medically for our children, but as a parent, I want to do the best I can to protect their health,’ explains Kyran.
‘None of us knows what is round the corner medically for our children, but as a parent, I want to do the best I can to protect their health,’ explains Kyran.
Stem cells are already being used to treat leukaemia and other types
of cancers and blood disorders. The hope is they will soon help treat
nerve damage, repair cartilage and even cardiac tissue following heart
attacks.
His six-year-old daughter decided she wanted him, rather than her mother, to pull out a wobbly tooth. When he glanced at the tooth, he noticed that the pulp - the soft tissue inside it - was still living.
The cutting-edge discovery about tooth stem cells was
made by chance in 2003 by Dr Songtao Shi, an American stem cell
scientist and former paediatric dentist.
His six-year-old daughter decided she wanted him, rather than her mother, to pull out a wobbly tooth. When he glanced at the tooth, he noticed that the pulp - the soft tissue inside it - was still living.
As well as forming new bone cells, the stem cells were also manipulated to form nerve and blood cells.
One advantage of this new source is that extracting the stem cells is painless, because children naturally start losing their milk teeth around six or seven. Another advantage is there’s more than one opportunity to harvest baby teeth stem cells: if one tooth doesn’t yield a good supply, the next one hopefully will.
One advantage of this new source is that extracting the stem cells is painless, because children naturally start losing their milk teeth around six or seven. Another advantage is there’s more than one opportunity to harvest baby teeth stem cells: if one tooth doesn’t yield a good supply, the next one hopefully will.
No comments:
Post a Comment