Adverse childhood experiences or ACEs — traumatic events occurring during childhood — are common and, in many individuals, have long-term consequences, affecting vulnerability to chronic medical problems, mental illness, and substance use. Because exposure to childhood adversity is ubiquitous, there is an urgent need to understand why some individuals are more susceptible to childhood adversity. Erin Dunn, ScD MPH is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist whose research has focused on understanding how these early exposures lead to mental illness, with the goal of translating this information into population-based strategies which could mitigate the negative consequences of adversity and prevent the onset of psychiatric illness.
One of the challenges in doing this research has been finding an accurate and objective measure of adversity. Most studies rely on parental reports of adverse events, which may be limited by recall and are likely to have certain biases. Dr. Dunn and her team have recently started looking at children’s teeth to better understand exposure to adversity. In humans, primary or baby teeth start to develop before birth (around 6 to 8 weeks of gestation) and continue to accumulate layers of enamel during pregnancy and the early years of the child’s life. Like the rings of a growing tree, these layers of enamel reveal what the child has been exposed to — environmental toxins, chemicals, nutritional deficiencies, as well as adverse life experiences. In response to stressful events, “stress lines” appear — disruptions in the layers of enamel — which can help researchers identify which children have experienced significant adversity and can also pinpoint the timing of this exposure.
In several recent articles and interviews, Dr. Dunn discusses how this interesting approach to studying childhood adversity got started, and she discusses how this research might bring us to a new place in terms of being able to actually prevent the onset of mental illness.
Her lab is now recruiting Boston-area women to participate in a study using baby teeth to look at the impact of the Boston Marathon bombings on child development. You can find out more about this study at Teeth for Science or at the Partners Rally website.
Read More
Davis KA, Mountain RV, Pickett OR, Den Besten PK, Bidlack FB, Dunn EC. Teeth as Potential New Tools to Measure Early-Life Adversity and Subsequent Mental Health Risk: An Interdisciplinary Review and Conceptual Model. Biol Psychiatry. 2020 Mar 15; 87(6):502-513.
Mountain RV, Zhu Y, Pickett OR, Lussier AA, Goldstein JM, Roffman JL, Bidlack FB, Dunn EC. Association of Maternal Stress and Social Support During Pregnancy With Growth Marks in Children’s Primary Tooth Enamel. JAMA Netw Open. 2021 Nov 1; 4(11):e2129129.
In the News
The Secret Lives of Baby Teeth (Vox)
Baby teeth may be window to child’s risk of mental health disorders (Harvard Gazette)
Children’s Teeth May be a Strong Indicator of Future Mental Health Issues (Boston Magazine)
