Oral Surgeon utilizes StemSave to preserve stem cells in wisdom teeth to combat a rare genetic cardiac disorder.

Miriam Pensack went to Alpine Oral and Facial Surgery to have her wisdom teeth pulled in November, when she awoke she learned that her father had chosen to have her stem cells saved.

When Lupori removed Miriam’s teeth, he checked to make sure the pulp was there and put them into a preserving solution. The office shipped the teeth to New York. StemSave’s laboratory workers tested them for viable stem cells and stored Miriam’s tissue.

Pensack, a former emergency room doctor who now is a psychiatrist, didn’t hesitate when he learned he could have Miriam’s cells saved. He has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the muscle of the heart is abnormal without an apparent cause. It’s genetic. If stem cell research advances to the state he thinks it will, people could have diseased heart tissue replaced with healthy tissue grown from their own cells.

One of the benefits of growing a new organ from your own stem cells is that you don’t have any risk of the body rejecting it, Pensack said. Pensack underwent a heart transplant because of his condition. He takes two drugs to keep his immune system from rejecting the organ. He takes 13 drugs to treat the side effects of those two.

“You take them forever, and they’re all like chemotherapy,” Pensack said. “They’re poisonous to other organs.”

Miriam said her family frequently discussed the potential of stem cells. She’s glad hers are on ice because they could help her deal with any medical issue she encounters.

“Hopefully, should complications come up in my health, that is a pretty firm pillar to lean on,” Miriam Pensack said.

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