Should deciduous teeth be preserved in adult patients? Why not? How about stem cells from deciduous teeth? Is it reasonable to preserve them?

Alberto Consolaro

A number of biological aspects of deciduous teeth can be clinically applied, all of which should be known by dental professionals. It should be highlighted: nearly 25% of the overall population has some kind of partial anodontia, which implies in the presence of deciduous teeth after the expected time in one’s dental arch. Thus, a few considerations should be made regarding those teeth. 1) Once a deciduous tooth has fully developed, it gradually loses its cells as a result of apoptosis, a natural process of cell elimination of which function has been fulfilled. Apoptosis if the biological trigger of root resorption. 2) In adult patients, deciduous teeth should not be preserved, as they promote infraocclusion, traumatic occlusion, occlusal trauma, diastemata and size as well as morphological discrepancy malocclusions. 3) Their surfaces are partially denuded and orthodontic movement speeds root resorption up. 4) Likewise, restoring or recontouring deciduous teeth in order to establish esthetics and function of adult patients implies in speeding tooth loss up as a result of the periodontal overload posed by both processes. 5) Deciduous teeth cells are dying as a result of apoptosis, and their regeneration potential, which allows them to act as stem cells, is limited. On the contrary, adult teeth cells have greater proliferative potential, although stem-cell therapy remains as laboratory investigative unauthorized trials.

Keywords: Deciduous teeth. Root resorption. Stem cells. Apoptosis.

How to cite: Consolaro A. Should deciduous teeth be preserved in adult patients? Why not? How about stem cells from deciduous teeth? Is it reasonable to preserve them? J Clin Dent Res. 2016 jan-mar;13(1):17-32. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14436/2447-911x.13.1.017-032.bes

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