A London tooth bank
I’ve heard of London blood banks, money banks, and even old clothes banks but this is the first I’ve heard of tooth banks? And why would any one want to save old teeth?
A Norwegian company is now requesting about 100, 000 teeth from children in Norway for their tooth bank.The Tooth Bank happens to be a research sub-project of the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa).It also happens to be a collaborative project between the Norwegian Institute of Public Health as well as the University of Bergen. The main objective of this project is to collect baby teeth to gain further information on the effect of environmental influences and nutrition in the fetus and early childhood.
The new Tooth Bank, MoBaTann, is planning to get parents to donate their children’s teeth for the research project on children’s nutrition as well as developmental influences on teeth. Parents are also encouraged to contribute further information about each mother’s diet and background through pregnancy with answering feedback forms, diet charts as well as complex blood and lab testing for references .The children are followed as they grow with questionnaires. This will be the largest project on collecting information on children teeth as well as the influences they have been exposed to during pregnancy.