Yes, it is okay, and often recommended, to keep milk teeth, primarily because of their potential medical value.
Why Consider Saving Milk Teeth?
The primary reason parents are encouraged to save their child's milk teeth is due to the presence of valuable stem cells within them. Unlike stem cells found in other sources like bone marrow, those in baby teeth are relatively easy to collect and are considered a rich resource.
Advantages of Saving Baby Teeth
Based on the provided reference and current understanding:
- Rich Source of Stem Cells: Milk teeth, specifically the pulp inside, contain mesenchymal stem cells. These cells have the potential to develop into various cell types, including bone, cartilage, and muscle cells.
- Potential Future Medical Use: Considering that baby teeth are a rich source of stem cells, parents should save them. These stem cells could potentially be used in the future for regenerative therapies.
- Growth of Other Tissue: As noted, medical and dental professionals may be able to utilize the stem cells from baby teeth to grow other tissue, offering potential solutions if a child develops certain illnesses later in life.
Keeping milk teeth is not just a sentimental practice; it's increasingly viewed as a practical step for a child's potential future health needs. While traditional methods of preserving teeth (like putting them in a tooth fairy box) are sentimental, specialized dental stem cell banking services exist to properly store teeth for medical use.
For more information on stem cell banking for teeth, you might explore services that offer dental pulp stem cell storage.
