If you think way back, you can probably remember what it felt like to have your baby teeth—not to mention what it felt like to lose them.
Though we’ve generally thought of them as just things that we push out to make room for our real teeth, that initial set we get is actually more useful than we thought before.
As it turns out, our baby teeth contain valuable biological material in the form of stem cells.
Unlike most of the cells in our bodies, stem cells are undifferentiated. This means that unlike brain cells or blood cells, they are a blank slate and can grow into anything the body needs. Through modern medical technology, these important little cells can be put to a wide variety of uses.
With a reliable source of stem cells, doctors can regrow any number of replacement tissues that they might need—anything from heart cells to brain cells. While there is still research to be done on how to use stem cells to treat various illnesses, they show lots of potential for treating a wide range of life-threatening diseases.
Still, even for those who are in a position to save their baby teeth, there are still important steps to take to make sure the stem cells are usable later on. Because these cells lose their potency as they get older, it’s important to make sure the teeth stay preserved.
Fortunately, there are several companies available that provide these services—Save-A-Tooth, The Tooth Bank and StemSave, just to name a few. To do this, these organizations keep your teeth in liquid nitrogen to keep them preserved for future uses.
While all the future uses of stem cells remain to be seen, it’s always best to be prepared for those who can afford these services. Medical technology is making leaps forward all the time. Who knows? In the future, maybe the next best breakthrough will come from banks of frozen baby teeth. Stranger things have happened, after all.
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