They wait excitedly for the tooth fairy to arrive and take their baby tooth, leaving a few coins or bills behind. While many parents keep their kids’ first lost tooth, we usually toss out the others that come after.
If your children are still little, you might want to save all of their lost baby teeth. Scientists and doctors are urging parents to keep these teeth, and the reasons may surprise you.
It turns out there are lots of stem cells in those teeth that could help save their lives later on.
Stem cells can be used to treat illnesses like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and some types of canc3r.
Many people who get these diagnoses often have to wait a long time for a matching bone marrow donor. But if your child is ever diagnosed with one of these conditions and you’ve saved their baby teeth, the stem cells inside can be used in treatment so they won’t need to wait for someone else.
If they need any teeth removed (like wisdom teeth), those can also be useful later on so discuss saving them with your child’s dentist.
No parent wants to think about the scary idea of their child getting a serious illness. But by taking actions like keeping their baby teeth safe it could really help with treatment down the line.
