BANGALORE: Milk tooth can now be preserved at the stem cell banks as the pulp inside the tooth has been proven helpful in treating a range of diseases like cancer, heart disease, periodontal diseases can also be used to grow replacement teeth and bones.Apart form the milk tooth of children, wisdom tooth for adults can be a good source for stem cells.City based dental surgeon, Dr Sanjay Kaul, says, “Banking dental stem cells provides opportunities for people who have missed out to bank their cord blood cells.Dental stem cells can be potential treatment options for various diseases.” Shailesh Gadre, Managing Director, Stemade, Chennai based dental stem cell banking unit, with its clinics at Bangalore said, “Unlike umbilical cord blood cells which are used to treat blood-related diseases like leukaemia and thalessemia, dental stem cells have the ability to treat certain forms of cancer, heart disease, periodontal diseases and can also be used to grow replacement teeth and bone too.” Further, dental stem cells have high regeneration capacity and multiplies fast.“About 20-40 per cent of dental stem cells are able to regenerate about millions of cells which can be used for treating bone, central nervous system, cardiac, muscles, liver and cornea related diseases” he added.Speaking about the procedure of extraction, Gadre said, “In case of milk teeth it has to be extracted while the teeth is about to fall, and for the wisdom teeth among adults it has to be done when the teeth is about to be extracted.The dental pulp of the teeth is the source of these stem cells and the pulp is more usable when they have a blood supply.” He said, “Processing fee is `50,000 and the banking cost is `6,000 per year. It is for a period of 21 years, banking service can be renewed.”
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