gh COLLECTION OF MINERALS IN OUR TEETH

A group of mineralogists lead by Valentina Katkova from the Komi

Institute of Geology have studied more than 200 second and milk-teeth. The

scientists wanted to find out, what minerals our teeth contain. All the objects

of examination were taken from city dentist's clinics. The scientists made tooth

sections and examined them under microscope. X-ray-structure analysis and

microprobe analysis were also made. The scientists found that our teeth contain

a large collection of various minerals.

Human body is a favourable environment for mineral forming. In most organs

and tissues apatite takes the first place, in teeth quartz is found more often -

in every second tooth. In nature quartz looks like glass and forms beautiful

large oblong crystals. In the teeth the scientists found only tiny (less than 1

mm in diameter) round grains, yet they were real quartz crystals, mostly white

or transparent, sometimes black or pink. Quartz usually is formed in teeth,

affected by caries, but in one healthy but defective cutting tooth the

scientists found half a hundred crystals. It seems that quartz is formed from

tooth fillings (almost everybody has them), because they are based on powdered

quartz. Fillings also support apatite growth, which occurs a bit less often than

quartz.

Apatit is a very useful mineral, because it contains much phosphor. It is

not yet known why human teeth contain it. It is usually found in the dentine

root canal in the form of corals or spike-shaped crystals. What medics call a

"denticle" turned out to be a sort of apatite. Denticles are small round

particles on pulp and canal walls, and they are formed as a tooth reaction to

microbe infection.

Besides quartz and apatite, human teeth contain other minerals as well. In

the cement whewellite, a sort of calcium compound, sometimes is found, in the

pulp camera of one tooth, affected by parodontosis, the scientists found opal.

Feldspar grains, native iron, aragonite, siderite, acanthite, hematite and

graphite also were discovered. Tiny rhombic crystals of whitlockite, calcium

phosphate, were found at the patches of destructed enamel. Dentine and pulp also

produce organic minerals - glass-like spheres and cylinders of hydrocarbon

composition.

Polymetallic compounds are formed deep inside the teeth covered with a

metal crowns, including chromium, iron, zinc, tin, nickel and bismuth; sometimes

the bismuth amount reaches 85% of the inclusion mass. Healthy teeth may contain

aluminium, iron, tin and lead, sometimes microparticles of native gold, silver

and rare-earth metals. Much to the scientists' surprise, one milk-tooth had a

cluster of crystals, half-composed of aluminium.

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