Tooth fairies find more than just money in teeth

When one envisions the tooth fairy, their first thought may be a small pixie exchanging children’s teeth for money.

However, for children in Western Australia’s Goldfields region, the tooth fairy means so much more.

The Heavy Metal Tooth Fairy Project, from the minds of Dr Annette Stokes AM and Kalgoorlie paediatrician and chief investigator Dr Christine Jeffries-Stokes AM, aims to identify childhood exposure to heavy metals in remote Indigenous WA communities.

“We are capitalising on that tradition of giving your baby teeth to the tooth fairy when they fall out,” Dr Jeffries-Stokes said.

The project was born from the Western Desert Kidney Health Project, which ran from 2007 to 2014, and discovered that nitrate-contaminated drinking water was a contributing factor to higher-than-expected rates of kidney disease and type 2 diabetes in the Goldfields.

This finding was the genesis for the Heavy Metal Tooth Fairy Project.

Dr Jeffries-Stokes said environmental exposure to heavy metals can occur through drinking water, soil and dust in resource-rich regions. These include arsenic, lead, copper, mercury and zinc, which naturally occur in the environment.

While exposure to some metals in small amounts could be harmless or even essential, prolonged exposure to low levels can lead to toxic accumulation and adverse health effects.

Those particularly vulnerable are infants and young children due to the developing organs and tissues.

From August, the tooth fairies will analyse 125 deciduous teeth from the Goldfields and Central Desert of WA for heavy metals and other contaminants at the University of Western Australia. They will then analyse 125 teeth from Perth participants enrolled in the ORIGINS program, the largest longitudinal birth cohort study in the country.

The objective is to compare the prevalence of heavy metals in the dental tissue of children from regional and metropolitan areas.

“It’s going to be really fun and interesting and will explore new ways of doing things,” Dr Jeffries-Stokes said.

Unlike the elusive tooth fairy, these tooth fairies will head into rural schools to work directly with children.

“We will work with the children to do experiments and teach them about where their drinking water comes from,” Dr Jeffries-Stokes said.

“They will learn how to make a model of the water cycle, and how a bore works using breakfast cereals to make straws.”

They will also focus on oral health, teaching the children how to brush their teeth.

“We also collect information on where the children have lived throughout their life so that if we do find things in their teeth, we will try to identify where those exposures may have occurred,” she said.

While Dr Jeffries-Stokes shared her excitement for the project, she said this should not be needed in countries like Australia.

“We shouldn’t have to do this; we should know what’s in the water,” she said.

“There should not be any contaminants like nitrate or heavy metals in the drinking water. “So, I have mixed emotions about it.”