USING THE TOOTH AS A TOOL TO RECORD EARLY ZINC NUTRITION - Version 1.1

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    EXPLORING THE LEVELS AND DISTRIBUTION OF ZINC IN THE DECIDUOUS TOOTH AS A TOOL TO RECORD EARLY LIFE EXPOSURE TO ZINC NUTRITION

  • IRAS ID

    153689

  • Contact name

    Paula Waterhouse

  • Contact email

    paula.waterhouse@ncl.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hopsital NHS Foundation Trust

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    2 years, 7 months, 31 days

  • Research summary

    It is well established that early life nutrition has life-long consequences for health. It is thus becoming increasingly important to obtain reliable retrospective measures of nutritional exposures.
    The overall aim of this project is to evaluate the usefulness of the tooth for recording early life dietary exposure to zinc, which is an essential dietary micronutrient for which early exposure is known to impinge on lifelong health.
    The study will be conducted in United Kingdom, which will be located in Newcastle upon Tyne. A total of 50 children will be sampled. Children, who receive extraction treatment for their milk teeth in the Child Dental Health Clinic, Newcastle Dental Hospital whose meet the inclusion of criteria will be included in this study.
    The selected children and their mothers will have the study explained to them. If they have agree to participate by written informed consent, they will be included in the study. The mother will be given a questionnaire about their diet during pregnancy and their child during pre-school period, while the child will be asked some questions to gain information about their current diet. The child’s milk teeth will be extracted by the dental team following normal procedures in Child Dental Health Clinic, and those teeth will be taken by investigator. As a trade, the child will receive a certificate to be kept or given to the tooth fairy.
    The extracted teeth will have the pulp removed for molecular analysis and then the hard tissues will be analysed histologically in Newcastle University and through LA-ICP-MS (laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) in Leeds University. The results will be compared with the questionnaire data to answer the aims of this study.

  • REC name

    South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    15/SC/0135

  • Date of REC Opinion

    11 Mar 2015

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion