The gene manipulation procedure does appear to work in cells taken from the pulpy tissue of extracted wisdom teeth. Scientists in Japan working with wisdom teeth from three donors were able to create several stem cell lines. In the lab, many of the cells thrived and responded readily when the researchers prodded them to turn into different cell types. It may even be possible to freeze and store wisdom teeth to use years later if the donor needs an infusion of stem cells. More research needs to be done before stem cells harvested from wisdom teeth would have a significant real world impact. But the promising early results suggest that wisdom teeth may become quite useful after all.