Strontium-90 Content of Deciduous Teeth of Children

¹ Departments of Physiological Chemistry, Dental Medicine, and Pedodontics, Washington University School of Dentistry, St. Louis, Missouri

The Sr⁹⁰ content of deciduous tooth crowns increased from 0.15 to 4.7 pC Sr⁹⁰/ Gm. of Ca between 1947 and 1958, respectively, for children born in the St. Louis area and who were bottle-fed from birth. The variation of Sr⁹⁰ content in deciduous incisors, cuspids, and first and second molars, between carious and sound teeth or between teeth from children who were breastfed or bottle-fed during the time of tooth formation, was less than 30 per cent. This small variation suggests that pooled samples of tooth crown, without regard to these classifications, may adequately serve as a measure of Sr⁹⁰ body burden during the time of tooth formation.

For the teeth of children who were bottlefed, a relationship between the Sr⁹⁰ content of tooth crown (C_t) and the diet (C_d) is adequately described by the equation C_t = XC_d, where the slope (X) must be determined experimentally. The value of X was 0.59 for sound incisors, 0.69 for carious first molars, 0.76 for sound cuspids, and 0.77 for carious second molars. This relationship makes it possible to estimate the dietary Sr⁹⁰ content from tooth values for years prior to the initiation of dietary Sr⁹⁰ estimations.