Baby Teeth & Heavy Metal Exposure | What Teeth Can Reveal
Your Teeth Can Tell a Story About Heavy Metal Exposure Here's something I find absolutely fascinating:
Researchers can actually analyze baby teeth to reconstruct a history of exposure to certain metals.
As teeth develop, elements circulating in the body can become incorporated into the developing enamel and dentin. This includes metals such as lead, manganese, barium, cadmium, and mercury.
And it gets even more interesting…
Different parts of a tooth form at different times. By using specialized techniques to analyze tiny sections of dentin, researchers can create something resembling a timeline of exposure, including exposure that occurred during pregnancy and early childhood.
In fact, studies have found that lead levels in specific portions of baby teeth can correspond with lead levels measured in blood during the same developmental period.
So a tooth isn't necessarily just something you lose and forget about.
It can contain a record of what the body was exposed to while that tooth was developing.
The human body leaves clues in some pretty unexpected places.
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