I can soooo picture the tooth fairy laughing raucously on top of her heaping pile of teeth collected over the centuries. As a handful of scientists in Japan have claimed, it turns out that teeth can be used to make stem cells - the wonder cure of modern medicine.

The Japanese scientists of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) claim they have successfully created stem cells using tissue extracted from a 10 year old girl's molar. Her wisdom tooth, to be exact.

Their findings show that wisdom teeth may be a more effective (and ethical) solution to create stem cells from, instead of human embryos.

In their tests, they have found a suitable sort of stem cell in the tooth that could be developed into other types of cells within a laboratory. The tissue samples that they are currently cultivating in the labs have already been in development for a month now.

The ethical implications of getting stem cells from human embryos have been a bane to many a stem cell researcher. But with these new findings, it seems that the ethical dilemma has finally been curbed. As explained by head researcher Hajime Ogushi:

One is that we can avoid the ethical issues of stem cells because wisdom teeth are destined to be thrown away anyway. Also, we used teeth that had been extracted three years ago and had been preserved in a freezer. That means that it's easy for us to stock this source of stem cells.

As indicated by the team, however, it'll only take at least five years before any of their experiments would yield actual results in practical medical procedures. It's still a start though! And get this, dentists in the US are already starting to gather and store teeth for potential uses in the future.

Hold on to those pearly whites, folks! They might save someone's life one day!

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