How Baby Teeth Protect Children From A Number Of Conditions

Rarely do we keep our baby teeth that we lose as children. Other than to trade in these little pearly whites for some money from the tooth fairy, what good could they possibly serve?

New research has highlighted an amazing new benefit that these teeth can have for your child's health. It all has to do with the power of stem cells. Your baby's teeth are jam-packed with tons of these cells that have the power to be used to regenerate a myriad of cell types in the body.

SHARE this amazing news with your friends who have little kids who are just starting to lose their teeth. They will be thanking you forever!

Trading in your teeth for a few dollars (or for me, a few pennies) is a rite of passage into being a big kid, right?

But all you fairies out there — we know who you are — should maybe hold on to those bad boys.

In fact, new research is suggesting that dental pulp, taken from the area in the very middle of the tooth, can be used for a number of health purposes.

So what can be done with that pulp?

This area of the baby tooth is packed with stem cells. Up until this point, one of the main ways that parents have been able to store their child's stem cells was to preserve blood from the umbilical cord immediately after birth. Arguably, it is much easier to store freshly pulled baby teeth. Here is a shot of neurons generated by using stem cells.

What can these stem cells be used for?

As you can see from this graphic, stem cells can be used for dental or medical reasons. Teeth can be regenerated when disease breaks down their structural integrity. Aside from dental benefits, these pulp stem cells can potentially treat Alzheimer's, liver disease, Parkinson's, and even spinal cord injuries.

To reap the benefits of these stem cells, you can't just put those baby teeth in a little bag and store it in a box in the garage. Here's what you have to do.

There are a number of storage kits that you can use to properly preserve those stem cells.

To name a few, the Tooth Bank and Store-A-Tooth are kits that can be used to do it properly. The teeth need to be frozen within two days of breaking away from the jaw. So if the teeth have already been kicking around your kid's bedroom for a few days, they may not be too useful.

So keep up with the tooth fairy tradition, but just keep those pearly whites in storage.

It's for your child's health!