Stem Cells and its use in Dentistry

Professorial Dissertation from the year 2018 in the subject Medicine - Dentistry, grade: -, Teerthanker Mahaveer University (Teerthanker Mahaveer Dental College & Research Centre), course: Dentistry, language: English, abstract: One of the fundamental properties of stem cell is that it does not have any tissue-specific structure that allows it to perform a specialized function. Unspecialized stem cells can give rise to specialized cells including heart muscle cells, blood cells, or nerve cells. This process is called differentiation. Several types of stem cell have been discovered from germ cells, the embryo, fetus, and adult. Each of these has promised to revolutionize the future of regenerative medicine through the provision of cell-replacement therapies to treat a variety of debilitating diseases. Stem cell research opens-up the new field of 'cell-based therapies' and, as such, several safety measures have also to be evaluated. Regenerative medicine is based on stem cells. The dental pulp contains the progenitor/stem cells which have the self-renewal capability, multi-lineage differentiation capacity and clonogenic efficiency. Dental stem cells can generate many types of tissues including bone, nerve, cartilage, teeth, and fat. However, the biology of these mysterious cells have yet to be understood and a lot more basic research is needed before new therapies using stem-cell-differentiated derivatives can be applied. Recently stem cells banks are present, and even some of these banks do not only freeze cord stem cells but also dental stem cells of baby teeth. Hence this review attempts to study the history, current concepts, evolution of stem cells in dentistry, dental stem cell banking in India, characterization of the stem cells in dentin regeneration and stem cell therapy in dentistry.