Your child's milk teeth could save more lives

Do not feel sorry about the missed opportunity of stem cell banking when your little one was born. You have not missed the chance.

Apart from umbilical cord blood banking, which was till recently considered the best form of stem cell banking, there is now dental stem cell banking which is a more viable option.

Experts say the ideal age for storing the stem cells is between six and 12 years. It is during this period that children lose their milk teeth ‘naturally’, said Dr Anand Sajnani, a pedodontist associated with Stemade Biotech.

“When milk teeth begin to shake, they can be collected to harvest dental stem cells with minimum discomfort to the child, thus making it the most non-invasive procedure of obtaining stem cells,” he said. But what are the advantages of banking dental stem cell over umbilical cord blood banking?

“Dental stem cells are a potent source of mesenchymal (tissue-related) stem cells, while umbilical cord blood provides hematopoietic (blood-related) stem cells. Hematopoietic stem cells have the potential to treat only blood-related disorders such as leukemia whereas mesenchymal stem cells have the potential applications in all other tissues of your body such as brain (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s),  eye (corneal reconstruction), liver (cirrhosis), pancreas (diabetes), bone (fractures, reconstruction) etc,” he said.

Umbilical cord blood banking provides only a single opportunity at the time of delivery of the child.

Dental stem cell banking is gaining popularity. “The technology has been well received by the medical community and the general population alike. So far, we have processed more than 500 samples across the country,” said Shailesh Gadre, founder and managing director of Stemade.