Dental lead levels in children from two different urban and suburban areas of Turkey

The lead content of shed primary teeth has proved to be a reliable measure of cumulative lead exposure in children as it is an indicator of the degree of exposure over several years, from in utero life to loss of the tooth. Totally 297 shed deciduous teeth were collected from 263 children between ages 4 and 15 to determine the level of lead exposure in Ankara and Balıkesir in Turkey. Ankara is the capital of Turkey and characterized by heavy traffic and high air pollution. On the other hand, Balıkesir has less traffic. Balıkesir-Centre (R) had the highest mean (SD) lead level (1.77±1.03 μg/g) whereas Ankara-Centre (U) had the lowest level (1.30±0.59 μg/g). We could not observe a statistically significant difference between urban and suburban regions (Table 1), and in terms of type of tooth, incisors had a statistically significant higher lead level than canines and molars (p<0.05, Table 2). No difference was observed between boys and girls and the accumulation of lead in teeth (p<0.05, Table 3).