Can your teeth reveal more about your mental health?

A study carried out by the University of Bristol looked at the connection between teeth formation and childhood adversity to help identify children at risk for depression and other mental health disorders later in life.

The head researcher, Erin Dunn, said that “teeth create a permanent record of different kinds of life experiences.” Exposure to sources of physical stress like poor nutrition and disease can affect the formation of dental enamel and result in stress lines. Stress lines are similar to rings on a tree, which show the climate that the tree grew up in. Just like different trees grow up in different climates, different children grow up in different households. Thicker stress lines indicate stressful life conditions. This study aims to help identify children who have been exposed to adversity early in life, connect them to experts, and prevent mental health disorders from developing at an early age.

Read more about it here: ibit.ly/g0nX