Tooth Cracker 5000: Harvests Four Times More Stem Cells

The tooth root pulp of wisdom teeth is rich with stem cells but the common methods for extracting it—drilling into, removing the top of or shattering the tooth—reduces the number of viable stem cells due to damaging heat from the drill, corrosive elements in the water used to rinse teeth, contaminating enamel particulates and more. 

Researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)’s advanced education program in orthodontics recently developed a new method for extracting larger numbers of stem cells from teeth. Using fracture analysis techniques, the team developed a tool—dubbed the “Tooth Cracker 5000”—that uses a clamp to hold a tooth in position while a cutting tool scores the surface and a blade cracks it. The result: a perfectly halved tooth, with immediate access to undamaged and uncontaminated root pulp and an average pulp recovery rate of about 80%; other methods result in a recovery rate of around 20%.

“Saying the test results were promising is a gross understatement,” says Dr. James Mah, Director of the UNLV program. “We realized we’d invented an extraction process that produced four times the recovery success rate for viable stem cells. The potential application is enormous.”

Since many adults have their wisdom teeth removed and extracting teeth is common among ortho patients, in the future, people may be able to donate stem cells found in their teeth much like they may donate their blood prior to a surgical procedure or preserve their umbilical cords. This leads researchers to their next challenge: reliably collecting the stem cells early enough and storing them successfully so they can be used when needed. 

Source: sciencedaily.com