Trend in the analysis of heavy metals in human teeth dentine: a review

Abstract

During the last years, many papers have been published on the analysis of heavy
metals in human teeth. Nowadays, heavy metal toxicity is a common problem encountered
in toxicology field. It has been found that heavy metal toxicity to humans is due to the longterm
exposure to the heavy metals commonly found in traces, in our daily diet, drinking
water and in environment as pollutants. Also, this exposure can occur through industrial
effluents, coal and oil, and numerous consumer products, such as cosmetics. Teeth
generally considered as an exo-skeleton part, accumulate heavy metals with high affinity
and reflect information of long-term exposure. Only selected areas of dentine are enough for
analysis instead of whole tooth. In the present paper, we have compiled the work done on
the analysis of heavy metals in human teeth using different instrumental techniques