At the time of child birth, preserving and banking umbilical cord stem cells is important. These cells are the mesenchymal cells which differentiate to develop human organs like Brain, heart, liver, kidney, muscles etc at the developing stage of a baby in the mother womb.
In case you miss collecting or preserving stem cells at the time of birth? Then the best choice is to collect Dental stem cells from the age of 5 - 11 years.
Why collect or preserve with the help of Dentist?
Because the tooth is the outermost part in the mouth which can be easily accessed and removed easily and preserved without any discomfort by the patient.
What are Stem cells?
Stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. Stem cells divide to form more cells called daughter cells.
Stem cells are mesenchymal cells which have the ability to self-renew and differentiate to form multiple cells.These mesenchymal cells are more present in birth to childhood and as age grows these cells will be unable to form into new stem cells.
These stem cells can be used to treat severe disease in younger and older age. Lesse the age of the child, more vital are stem cells.
What is the source of Stem cells?
- Placenta
- Bone Marrow
- Dermis
- Adipose tissue
- Dental Pulp
- Endometrium
Stem cells within Dental Pulp?
These are multipotent mesenchymal Stem cells that are abundant in primary teeth (milk teeth) of children and permanent teeth of young adults.
What is the correct age to collect Dental Stem cells?
Best opportunity to bank these stem cells is through the milk teeth of your child between 5 - 11 years.
How can Dental stem cells be preserved?
There are certain stem cell banks in the country, with the help of laboratoratory techniques these stem cells are preserved for many years.
How can a Dentist help to preserve Dental Stem cells?
Dentist selects the primary teeth (milk teeth) which have vital pulp tissue inside the tooth. By the extraction of vital pulp teeth and preserving it with a specially designed container at ambient temperature. Later transferred to Stem cell bank.
What are the uses of Dental Stem cells?
Dental Stem cells have inherent potential and ability to manage life threatening conditions like stroke, spinal cord injury, heart attack by repair of heart muscle, type 1 diabetes, cancer, cartilage damage.
Stem cells are used in certain conditions as follows
- Stroke
- Traumatic brain injury
- Wound healing
- Bone marrow transplantation
- Spinal cord injury
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Type 1 diabetes
- Cancer
Stem cells are made to differentiate to other cells which are needful for particular disease and are incorporated through surgical treatment.
Thanks for reading the Dentofacts article, for more such articles visit Dentofacts.