Local practice offers patients ability to bank stem cells from wisdom teeth
KENNEWICK, Wash.--When wisdom teeth are removed, they're typically just thrown away.
But wisdom teeth are packed with lifesaving stem cells, that can be used down the road to treat many health conditions.
Now one local practice is offering patients the ability to bank those stem cells for future use.
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon Todd Cooper says, "Who would have thought, it's just wisdom teeth, but hey, there's gold lurking inside that tooth."
Gold in the form of stem cells.
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon Todd Cooper says, "Stem cells are naturally occurring cells in everyone's body that are used to repair and regenerate tissue."
And stem cells are already being used to treat a variety of conditions.
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon Todd Cooper says, "There's promise for using stem cells for Parkinson’s, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, as I mentioned, cardiac problems, repairing an injury."
Right now, Columbia Basin Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons is the only practice in Washington State to offer patients the ability to bank stem cells from wisdom teeth.
They've teamed up with a company called Stemodontics.
If a patient is interested, their teeth are removed as part of the normal extraction and then sent to a lab where Stemodontics will find out if the teeth are viable for banking the cells.
While taking out wisdom teeth certainly isn’t new, having a way to store the metaphorical gold inside of them is.
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon Todd Cooper says, "Having a viable banking system is new."
Dr. Cooper says it may not be a procedure for everyone and there is a recurring fee to store the cells.
But for some families it could be very useful.
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon Todd Cooper says, "This will be something that's valuable for families who have known conditions that run in the family."
Dr. Cooper says they just got certified so although no one has opted for this service yet in the Tri-Cities, he’s glad it is now available to patients
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon Todd Cooper says, "It is exciting to offer new technology and potentially lifesaving measures that we may not see till years down the road, but it’s nice to be able to offer that."
To learn more about Stemodontics and banking stem cells, click here.
To schedule an appointment with Columbia Basin Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons, click here.
