The Tooth Fairy wants your baby’s stem cells

In 2003, Dr. Songtao Shi, a leading researcher, discovered the untapped resources of baby tooth stem cells. Using the baby teeth of his six-year-old daughter, Dr. Shi was able to isolate and grow these powerful cells and preserve their future regenerative potential.

Baby teeth, also called “milk” or “deciduous” teeth, appear from the age of about six months and fall out when the child is aged between six and eleven years old. U.S.-headquartered BioEden’s Tooth Cell Bank saves the cells from these teeth for future medical use thus acting as “biological insurance” for their families.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, parents in the UK that signup for the plan, which includes a registration fee of 950 pounds plus an annual 90 pound service charge, are sent a collection kit made up of a small container and cooling packs.

When a tooth falls out, they put it in the container and it is couriered to BioEden’s UK labs in Daresbury, Cheshire. The stem cells are extracted and then frozen until they are needed to treat a disease the child might develop in later life.

The report explained that stem cells are now recognized as a kind of “repair kit” for the body, as they possess the ability to be able to turn into different types of tissue, replacing the defective, dead and worn out cells behind medical conditions like diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and a host of other illnesses.

While the technology to actually harness the power of these cells has not yet been developed, many parents are freezing their child’s baby teeth, banking that the technology will be available by the time the child has grown.

Embryonic stem cells hold the most promise but their use is mired in controversy-because harvesting them in the first day of an embryo’s life leads to its death.

Using a person’s own cells removes any risk that they will be rejected by the body.

Stem cell experts have cautioned that it is too early to say how well tooth cells will freeze and or how useful they will be in future therapies.

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