Teeth Might Save a Child’s Life

Your youngster's teeth may one day have the ability to save his or her life.


Everyone's teeth contain pulp, a spongy material made up of tissue, blood vessels and nerves in the center of each tooth. A child's tooth pulp contains special stem cells that can become different types of tissue, such as oral and facial bone, cartilage, muscle and soft tissues.

Many people are already aware that bone marrow (that contains stem cells) is removed from one person and injected into a cancer patient in hopes of conquering the cancer. Imagine your child at an older age being inflicted with a condition such as Parkinson's disease. Your child's own stored dental stem cells could be used to repair the brain tissue damaged by Parkinson's.

Using one's own cells is called "personalized medicine," and it is becoming a popular way to use resources from a person's body to conquer disease or regenerate tissue, which eliminates ethical concerns. Using one's own stem cells also prevents the body from rejecting the cells or from inheriting an unwanted condition from an outside donor.

A dental stem bank has been set up (outside the U.S.) to explore using one’s own stem cells for dental applications. So far, three states have certified the stem cell bank’s processing and quality control procedures.
Even though we can't use this personalized medicine technology today, the prospect of its development is very exciting!

Houston dentist
Minh Nguyen, D.D.S.