Could your child's baby teeth be a life saver?

The tooth fairy could be on to something.  Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered that banking your child's baby teeth may be an easier and more affordable alternative to saving your child's umbilical cord blood. Medical reporter and author Dr. Christine Dumas was invited on “Today” to discuss the new stem cell research that every parent should know about.

First, let's make clear that we're not talking about the controversial use of embryonic stem cells.  But why are some parents saving their baby's umbilical cord blood for stem cells?
Scientists discovered that blood stem cells taken from the umbilical cord could be used to treat a host of diseases — most commonly childhood leukemia, other cancers and immune disorders — which had been treated with bone marrow.

But as much as parents want their children to have the best of everything and to have every possible advantage in life, there are still a couple of issues for parents to think about before deciding to bank umbilical cord blood.

First, it isn't cheap.  It costs between $1,500 and $2,000, plus about $100 or more per year to store. So cost is a prohibitive factor. Expectant mothers already have too many decisions to make, and that's enough stress for anyone without this as a bonus prize.

Is it worth the time and trouble?
A lot of parents wonder, and some doctors as well, does it make sense for them to store the blood at their own personal expense for their child or their sibling on the incredibly small likelihood or probability that they'll ever use it or need it back again.

What does this new research tell us about stem cells and baby teeth?
In this brand new research, about to be released later today by the NIH and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, it looks like there's another place to find stem cells that can give rise to bone and neural cells — inside the pulp of baby teeth when they are lost by a child — and that this non-controversial source of stem cells could be banked for future health needs.

How did the researcher make this discovery?
It was a rather amazing discovery made in a matter-of fact way. Dr. Songtao Shi had been doing research on the stem cells from bone marrow.

Today show Researchers say the top four baby teeth are the most viable for stem cell research.

So one day, Dr. Songtao 6-year-old daughter had a tooth that was about to come out, and Dr. Songtao also happened to be trained as a pediatric dentist in addition to doing stem cell research at NIH. His daughter knew this, and instead of going to her mom to remove her first baby tooth, she went to her dentist dad instead.  And when her dad looked inside the central-front baby tooth that had just come out, he saw live pulp and a light bulb went off in his head.  He thought, I wonder if I could get stem cells from here.

He took it to the lab and found out that indeed there were stem cells there that could be harvested. But to do the real research, he had to wait for her next baby tooth to come out. He took that tooth to the lab at 10:30 p.m., collected the tissue and confirmed that there were indeed stem cells. And then, because he needed more baby teeth, he waited around like an expectant parent waiting for his daughter’s friends’ baby teeth to come out, and he did research on those too.

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