Characteristics of Trace Element Balance in Children with Pollution-Related Dental Diseases

Abstract

Summary. Introduction: The necessity to assess, prevent and correct element-dependent diseases, increase the level of safety, predict and reduce the risk of exposures to industrial contaminants in the development of dental diseases in the child population is an important and promising area of modern hygiene. The objective of our study was to establish concentrations of trace elements in dental tissues of children exposed to various levels of industrial pollution. Materials and methods: We used atomic absorption spectrophotometry to measure 13 trace elements in extracted healthy and carious primary teeth in two groups of children aged 7–11. The first group consisted of 56 children living in the area with a significantly high level of anthropogenic burden (Caveraged total = 1.17 units) and a high prevalence of caries (86.9 %) while the second group consisted of 68 children living in the area with a relatively high level of anthropogenic burden (Caveraged total = 0.68 units) and a mean prevalence of caries (77.1 %) according to WHO criteria. Results: Our findings indicate that accumulation of toxic microelements in hard dental tissues of children in the first group was higher than in children of the second group: concentrations of lead, bismuth, cadmium and strontium were 2.6, 1.8, 2.5, and 1.2 times higher, respectively. We also observed higher accumulation of environmental toxicants in carious teeth compared to healthy ones. Thus, lead, cadmium and bismuth levels in carious teeth were 3.04, 1.2 and 3.13 times higher than in healthy teeth, respectively, while the level of strontium was, on the opposite, 2.5 times lower. Conclusions: The study revealed specific features of the interaction of essential trace elements in children in the form of antagonistic effects between cadmium and zinc, copper and manganese, and synergism in the content of copper, iron, nickel, zinc, and cobalt in healthy teeth, the mechanism of which is based on competition for a bond with a carrier substance and replacement of one element with another. In addition, we established that changes in the microelement balance in the hard tissues of healthy and carious teeth are not unidirectional in nature, thus reflecting complex interactions between the child’s organism and anthropogenic factors. The results proved that accumulation of toxic trace elements in hard dental tissues promotes caries development and causes a sharp decrease in the content of essential trace elements, especially chromium, manganese, iron, and copper. The study showed that hard dental tissues are a depot for lead, cadmium, bismuth, and strontium in children environmentally exposed to high levels of industrial chemicals. Features of developing an imbalance of biotic concentrations of essential elements and accumulating toxic microelements in children with pollution-related tooth pathology were also established.