How parents can store stem cells from their child’s milk teeth!
Earlier this year we caught up with Amanda Williamson from Future Health Biobank who told us all about stem cells and cord blood banking. She’s back again, this time to talk about how parents can store stem cells from their child’s milk teeth.
Thanks to clinical trials, dental pulp stem cells have been hailed by some scientists as having the potential to cause a so-called ‘cell-therapeutic’ paradigm shift in treatments for conditions such as: Parkinson’s disease; Alzheimer’s disease; cerebral ischaemia; myocardial infarction; muscular dystrophy, diabetes and more. After hearing this, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to find out just exactly how this works and what it means for families going forward.
If you’re new to our blog, or missed Amanda’s last article, we’ll give you a quick overview on stem cells before delving further into tooth stem cell banking.
Stem cells are amazing, unspecialised cells that help us grow and develop. Given the right signals, they can specialise in curing illnesses and healing injuries through regeneration. Stem cell banking is a way of extracting these cells and preserving them, should they be needed in the future for transplant or clinical trials. Private stem cell banking means they’re stored exclusively for your family too.
Dental pulp stem cells were discovered in the soft connective tissue in baby teeth by Dr Songtao Shi in 2003. Stem cells found in teeth are one of the most understood, extensively researched, and promising types of stem cell: mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).
How tooth stem cell banking work?
Commonly, the stored tooth stem cells Future Health stores are those from milk teeth. Children lose their milk teeth between 5 and 10 years old on average.
Amanda explains:
“When your child’s first tooth becomes wobbly, we will send you a specialist collection kit ready for when the tooth naturally falls out. The kit contains simple instructions on how to pack the tooth to transport back to our laboratory.”
“A dedicated courier will come to collect the kit from your home address and once received in the laboratory, our team of specialist scientists get to work to extract the stem cells from the dental pulp and cryopreserve them.”
1 Yamada Y, Nakamura-Yamada S, Kusano K, Baba S. Clinical Potential and Current Progress of Dental Pulp Stem Cells for Various Systemic Diseases in Regenerative Medicine: A Concise Review. Int J Mol Sci. 2019 Mar 6;20(5):1132. doi: 10.3390/ijms20051132. PMID: 30845639; PMCID: PMC6429131.
Who can store stem cells from teeth?
As well as storing stem cells from milk teeth, Future Health will also store stem cells for teens and adults who have tooth extractions for orthodontic purposes or who need their wisdom teeth removed. For extracted teeth, the process is slightly different as it is carried out by a dentist. Future Health can liaise with your dentist to provide them with all the information they need and sign the important paperwork.
Amanda goes on to explain:
“Storing stem cells from teeth gives more families the opportunity to store stem cells. This service is a great addition to the cord blood stem cell service as they are a different type of stem cell from those found in cord blood.”
“For families who missed out on their chance to store their child’s umbilical cord stem cells, this provides another opportunity to access stem cell banking, plus it is available to a broad age range of children.”
Stem cells are 100% matched to the child they are from; they’re stored exclusively for your family. If they’re needed for transplant or trial the team at Future Health will liaise with you and any healthcare professionals, who will ensure they are transported safely anywhere in the world.
Amanda concludes:
“Knowing that scientists believe that stem cells from teeth could provide a cure for or at the very least halt the progress of some of the most life-limitingor life-changing conditions, it makes me incredibly proud to offer this service to parents. I would wholeheartedly encourage any parent to get in touch as I’d love to chat through their options.”
Readers of this blog are entitled to 10% discount on dental pulp and umbilicalcord banking services.
Amanda Williamson
Future Health Bio Bank
Michael Johnson-Ellis
Hi everyone, So I’m Mike, guess I’m the crazy one who had the idea to sell our souls to Social Media and open up our world for everyone to comment on and observe our lives. I spend most nights (when not with Talulah and Duke obviously) with my phone glued to my hand, posting, sharing, liking and filming - all in readiness for Facebook, Insta and now YouTube. It’s getting to be a full time job, which is tricky - as I have one of those! For the last 18 years I have worked within Medical Recruitment and have worked in a variety of high pressured Operational and Business Development roles in London and the Midlands. More recently I am working for myself as it gives me greater flexibility with our new family via my Consultancy firm MJE Consultancy Ltd, where I attract and recruit Fertility Nurses, Embryologists and IVF Consultants and other specialist Doctors, as the Fertility Industry is my passion. I’m obviously one half of TwoDads.U.K and very proud of that fact too, and without doubt being a father is and has been the best job I’ve ever had. Nothing prepares you for the impact these little humans have on us, I know if you’re anything like me, the joy of being a parent just keeps on giving (whilst equally testing me too!). Don’t get me wrong, there’s days where I want to sit on the garage floor and drown myself in Gin but on the whole, life is better than it ever has been...
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