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Top Reasons for Gathering Stem Cells during Wisdom Teeth Extraction

October 8th, 2019

Stem cells are at the front of one of the most revolutionary areas of biology and medicine--regenerative cell therapy--and wisdom teeth are an important component of your ability to take advantage of these exciting new developments. Why? A brief look at the science will explain.

What Is Regenerative Cell Therapy?

Regenerative cell therapy, also commonly called stem cell therapy, uses healthy stem cells to replace, reengineer, or even regenerate damaged or diseased human cells, tissues, and organs and restore or establish normal function. This is possible because of the unique "plastic" nature of stem cells; healthy stem cells can differentiate or grow into almost any kind of tissue, regardless of where they originated from. The implications for medicine are astounding. It's possible that scientists and doctors can develop ways to use stem cells to treat previously untreatable conditions such as type 1 diabetes, traumatic brain and spinal injuries, Alzheimer's, and neurodegenerative diseases, just to name a few.

Stem cells can be found throughout the body in the brain, blood vessels, bone marrow, and even in the pulp of healthy teeth, which is where your wisdom teeth come in.

Why Bank Wisdom Teeth?

Wisdom teeth are an excellent source of stem cells. The soft pulp inside healthy wisdom teeth contains an abundant supply of mesenchymal stromal cells, or stem cells. These stem cells are similar to stem cells found in bone marrow but are much easier to get. Banking your wisdom teeth means that your healthy, extracted teeth along with their rich supply of stem cells are frozen and saved in case you ever need them.

Banking your wisdom teeth or the wisdom teeth of your child is a good idea for a number of reasons.

1. It's an easy way to harvest stem cells. While stem cells are prolific in the body, they're not necessarily easy to retrieve and isolate. Getting stem cells from wisdom teeth is easy and doesn't require any additional pain or discomfort.

2. Young stem cells are better than old ones. This is true for all of our cells; young, healthy cells divide and grow better than old ones, making the chances for therapeutic success greater.

3. Banking today means you or your child can benefit from more advanced technologies tomorrow. Scientists have barely scratched the surface of regenerative medicine. Banking stem cells today means you'll have access to your own toolkit of healthy cells that holds the promise of lifelong wellness.

Exercise this bit of wisdom: bank your wisdom teeth! You can't imagine what might be possible!