Baby teeth analyses may be the key in early detection of children at risk of mental disorders later in life

As reported in Science Daily and the Australian Dental Association’s website, Teeth create a permanent record of different kinds of life experiences says associate professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Erin C. Dunn.

Exposure to sources of physical stress, such as disease and malnutrition, has the propensity to affect the formation of dental enamel and result in pronounced growth lines within teeth, known as stress lines, which are not unlike the rings in a tree that mark its age. Just as the thickness of tree grow rings can vary based on the climate surrounding the tree as it forms, tooth growth lines can also vary based on the environment and experiences a child has in utero and shortly thereafter, the time when teeth are forming, says Dunn. Thicker stress lines may indicate more stressful life conditions it is believed. 

Neonatal line (NNL), a hypothesis developed by Dunn, has the potential to serve as an indicator of whether an infant’s mother experienced high elevated levels of psychological stress during pregnancy. 

Children of mothers who experienced anxiety and depression at 32 weeks of pregnancy had a greater likelihood than other children to have thicker NNLs. Conversely, children of mothers who received substantial social support shortly after pregnancy had thinner NNLs.

Dunn believes with further research the NNL and other tooth growth marks could be used in the future to identify children who have been exposed to early life adversity, “Then we can connect those kids to interventions… so we can prevent the onset of mental health disorders, and do that as early on in the lifespan as we possibly can.” 

Dunn’s research is nothing short of ground breaking.

Dr T. S. Saw OAM

Wheelers Hill Dental