Written By: Upneet Pansare | Updated : September 7, 2018 10:59 AM IST
Will your infant be healthy in the future? Their teeth can reveal that © Shutterstock
A research by the University of Bradford revealed that human deciduous teeth or milk teeth of Anglo Saxon children's skeletons were an indicator of future health risks that the baby was likely to suffer from, including diseases like diabetes and heart conditions. It observed that teeth were a better indicator of these health conditions than bones. For the study, Dr Julia Beaumont, of the University of Bradford's School of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences and her team studied children's skeletons from a 10th Century site in Northamptonshire, England.
A similar study was conducted by the Universities of Bradford and Durham earlier on the teeth of children and adults from two 19th century cemeteries. It observed that the biochemical composition of teeth that were forming in the womb and during a child s early years not only provided insight into the health of the baby s mother, it even showed major differences between those infants who died and those who survived beyond early childhood. According to the University of Bradford s website that gives details of the research, the levels of carbon and nitrogen isotopes within bone and teeth, and the relationship between the two, change with different diets, so baby teeth can reveal clues about the diet of the mother during pregnancy and the diet of the child immediately after birth.
Dr Beaumont indicated that baby teeth, which are lost naturally, provide markers for stress in the first months of life and hence can be an important indicator of future health risks, such as diabetes and heart disease.
The study was published on 6 September 2018 in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
Your teeth can reveal a lot about your health. For instance, swollen gums could indicate that you are suffering from anaemia, gum swelling with pus could indicate the presence of diabetes, gum inflammation where the bacteria from infected gums can dislodge, enter the blood, attach to blood vessels and increase clot formation can lead to heart diseases.
