Dental Pulp Stem Cells as a Cell Source for Craniofacial Regeneration

Abstract

Background: Dental pulp is routinely discarded with extracted teeth and yields clonogenic multipotent cells ontogenetically
native to the craniofacial skeleton, making it an attractive graft source.
Objective: To separate what the laboratory and clinical literature measures from what it asserts, and to state the size and
design of the human craniofacial evidence.
Methods: Narrative review of characterisation studies, human case series, randomised trials and banking reports.
Findings: Pulp cells formed 22 to 70 colonies per 10,000 cells against 2.4 to 3.1 for marrow stromal cells. Craniofacial bone
experience is a seven-patient split-mouth cohort reported twice, with probing depth gain 6.3 ± 2.1 mm against 4.5 ± 1.4 mm (p
< 0.001, N = 7), and a six-patient cleft series.
Conclusions: The evidence supports dental pulp cells as an accessible, well-characterised source that makes mineralised
matrix. It does not yet support clinical translation, which needs a controlled craniofacial bone trial.