Large Scale Study of Tooth Enamel

Human tooth enamel contains traces of foreign elements. The presence of these elements is related to the history and the environment of the human body and can be considered as the signature of perturbations which occur during the growth of a tooth. A map of the distribution of these traces on a large scale sample of the population will constitute a reference for further investigations of environmental effects. One hundred eighty samples of teeth were first analysed using PIXE, backscattering and nuclear reaction techniques. The results were analysed using statistical methods. Correlations between O, F, Na, P, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb and Sr were observed and cluster analysis was in progress. The techniques described in the present work have been developped in order to establish a method for the exploration of very large samples of the Belgian population.