What you need to know about 'keeping your teeth to save your life'

The doctor said it is not possible to keep the baby's teeth at home. To that end, parents must go to the original cell bank to deposit and pay the fee.

Social networks in recent days strongly recommend "do not throw away your baby's teeth because they can save your life" , information makes many mothers have small children interested. To clarify this issue, PV spoke with Dr. - Dr. Mai Van Dien, Medical Director of MekoStem Stem Cell Bank (HCMC), who has many years of experience in research and Stem cell analysis and storage application.

Doctor - Dr. Mai Van Dien - Medical Director of MekoStem Stem Cell Bank.

- Sir, can you tell me the fact that milk teeth can be used to cure diseases?

- Stem cells can be obtained from a variety of sources such as embryos, fetuses, umbilical cord and adults. For adults, usually taking bone marrow stem cells, peripheral blood, adipose tissue.Stem cells also come from the marrow of baby teeth. Around the world, some stem cell banks have performed the analysis and storage of stem cells from milk pulp. Experts analyze and separate stem cells, then evaluate the quality, if the cells reach the quality, keep them.

- Saying this means that if you want to use baby teeth to treat your child, you must send it to the stem cell bank?

- Right. It is wrong to think that keeping teeth at home is necessary.Stem cells in baby teeth can only last for 48 hours after being extracted from a child's teeth. According to the process, people who want to send their baby teeth to get stem cells must register in advance with the stem cell bank to ensure that the tooth is not infected. If the infection, stem cells will not be sufficient quality to carry out the storage.

- How is the quality of stem cells in the pulp?

- Compared with umbilical cord blood stem cells and neonatal umbilical cord membranes, the root canal stem cells are much worse, so-called "rootless" because many cells in the pulp are differentiated, adding half of the amount of dental stem cells is much less than that of umbilical cord blood and umbilical cord blood.

The collection of stem cells in milk teeth is thought and carried out by many banks to serve the needs of storing some stem cells from some parents who previously did not take umbilical cord blood or umbilical cord membranes to store. In other words, this is an opportunity for parents to give birth without thinking about or without the condition to store stem cells from umbilical cord.

Baby teeth are a second chance for parents who want to store stem cells for their babies but do not take umbilical cord blood at birth.

- In HCM City, where have stem cells stored from teeth?

- Previously, a hospital specializing in dentistry has proposed cooperation but we have not reached an agreement to work together. It is unclear whether there is any place where stem cell storage is carried out, however, in my opinion, it is normal for the orthodontic hospitals to coordinate with the stem cell bank to perform the analysis and storage. and cell preservation. Currently our bank only receives stem cells from umbilical cord blood and umbilical cord blood.

- How is the process of implementing cell storage popular today?

- First, the person who wants to join the program must determine that this is a completely voluntary job based on his knowledge of the prospect of applying stem cells to treatment and wishes to ensure the future of his health. and family members.

Customers contact us for instructions and registration procedures, procedures should be done no later than 3 days before birth. After the procedure, we will introduce customers to hospitals where doctors and midwives have been trained to select and collect umbilical cord samples so that customers can choose their birthplace.

Customers must keep in touch with us to know the date and time of delivery and if possible, the name and phone number of the doctor who is expected to support or surgery for the woman to contact the bank to arrange the work. take samples at the delivery room / operating room and transport them to storage.

Stem cells are most abundant in umbilical cord blood and umbilical cord.

- How is the cost of storing stem cells from umbilical cord blood and umbilical cord?

- We are the only stem cell bank in Indochina that has the technology to collect, process and store both types of umbilical cord stem cells, umbilical cord stem cells. The cost of each service is as follows:

1. For the service of storing stem cells from umbilical cord blood , collection, processing and storage fees for the first year are VND 25,300,000.Storage fees for the following years are VND 2,100,000 per year.
2. For stem cell storage services from the umbilical cord membrane for the first year is VND 15,800,000.Storage fees for the following years are VND 2,100,000 per year.

So, like cord blood or cord blood, sending baby teeth for stem cells if available will also be charged.

- How long does the stem cell's retention time last?

- Stem cells once put into storage at a temperature of -196 degrees Celsius have been put into "dormant" state. At this time, the cell stopped completely, did not change its state during the storage period, so in principle, the storage time is permanent. In fact, since stem cell services were born 15 years ago, scientists have been able to freeze and evaluate the quality of stem cells after being "awakened". The results showed that the cells stored in the early 20 years ago still yielded good results, capable of developing specific cell clusters as well as not changing the ability to differentiate into other cells.