Teeth can tell us a lot about ourselves and the environment in which we live. Forensic dentists provide a valuable scientific service for police and the justice system in identifying victims of accidents and foul play. Dental evidence, also, performs a highly important role in archaeological work delving into our histories around the world. Teeth can tell these experts the age and likely diet of skeletal and fossil remains found at archaeological sites. Did you know you can donate your teeth to science? And you can do it while alive or dead – because it can be incredibly helpful for those wishing to understand more about the health, history, and environmental factors affecting lives.

Teeth As Evidence For Scientific Enquiries

The hard and durable nature of teeth make it a substance capable of imparting information long after lives have been lived. In addition, the evidence within teeth can shine a light on environmental factors of particular importance.

“The Baby Teeth Collection Program originated in Montreal and quickly gained interests from the VOW National Committee in Toronto. Led by Dr. Ursula Franklin of the Voice of Women and working with Dr. A. Murray Hunt, professor of dental public health at the University of Toronto, VOW hoped to provide scientists with legitimate human samples they could test for radioactive substances, most importantly, strontium-90. Such projects had been completed in the United States with success. In December of 1958, the Greater St. Louis Citizens’ Committee for Nuclear Information (CNI) organised a baby teeth campaign to determine whether atomic testing exposed children to nuclear fallout. By 1963, the CNI had collected over 130,000 baby teeth. “
– Niche Canada

Parents see their infant’s teeth come in at around 6 months. But children’s teeth begin to develop earlier in life, starting as early as in utero. As children take in the world around them, their teeth incorporate key information too. Even though a child does not start to lose their primary teeth until around age 6, their baby teeth start to develop before birth. As their teeth grow they preserve information throughout their time in the womb, during birth, and as infants. They record information about the child’s home environment, their social behaviour, and early life exposures.

Baby teeth, think about these early markers of our journey as human beings. Do you remember your baby teeth or those of your children? Perhaps, saving them in a small container for the tooth fairy? The very idea of these precious but temporally obsolete parts of our humanity being infected by radioactive fall out strikes an abhorrent chord, in my opinion. It is chilling to ponder at this time of Putin and his access to Russia’s nuclear arsenal. I watched the British mini series Litvinenko on SBS recently about Alexander Litvinenko and his assassination in London by the FSB in 2006. Polonium is an isotope, this the most deadly radioactive material on earth was used by Putin’s Russian henchmen. This poisoning via the pot of green tea at a sushi restaurant turned Litvinenko’s internal organs to sludge in a despicable act of state sanctioned murder. We would imagine that all of Alexander Litvinenko’s teeth would have fallen out. He had a wife and a young son at the time of his horrendous death. It is remarkable what men will do to other men and women for power and in the service of despots.

Taking Teeth From The Tooth Fairy For Science

“The Tooth Fairy had a competitor in both the United States and Canada. Beginning in 1958, scientists at Washington University began collecting baby teeth from children in St. Louis, Missouri. A few years later, a Canadian housewife urged her government to do the same and, within weeks, her mailbox was overflowing with baby teeth from children across Canada. The goal of these two programs was not to put the Tooth Fairy out of business. Instead, children were urged to give their teeth “to science.” Parents whose children participated in the study still had the option of giving their children the nickel or dime traditionally given by the Tooth Fairy, but rather than being added to the Tooth Fairy’s collection of teeth, teeth given “to science” were used in a longitudinal study looking at possible links between cancer rates and the fallout produced by the detonation of the first atomic bomb at the White Sands Proving Ground in 1945 as well as the hundreds of nuclear tests conducted by the United States and the USSR between 1945 and 1963.”
– American History

The Potential Fall Out From Human Folly

One wonders what the baby teeth of future generations of Australians will tell the scientists if we go down this path. Recently we found asbestos in the landscaping material used in parks and schools around the country. We are not the sharpest tools in the shed and plenty of us take short cuts cutting corners where we shouldn’t. Making a quid is more important to many than doing the right thing by the book. We have governments wasting massive amounts of money on white elephant projects, whilst many of us struggle through a cost of living crisis. Politicians spin tall tales and tell lies for political purposes. There is an old saying about ‘being fed up to the back teeth’ with something. We must be inordinately stupid to keep buying what these men are selling.

Getting to the truth is like pulling teeth. Our teeth can tell us what has been really going. Dead men’s teeth tell no lies. The same goes for women, of course. As the group Teeth For Science say: You can send any teeth you have to our research team (baby teeth, adult teeth, teeth that naturally fell out, teeth that were extracted, teeth that you stored, etc.). If it’s a human tooth, we’ll take it! Check them out by clicking here.

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