Columbus Science Pub Presents: Secrets of the Tooth Fairy: What Your Baby Teeth Are Really Worth with Kaita Gurian

When you leave a baby tooth under your pillow, you are expecting a dollar from the tooth fairy. You are actually handing over one of the most detailed records your body will ever produce.

Teeth do not heal. Unlike bone, they lock in whatever was happening while they formed and they keep it, permanently. Illness, stress, hunger, even the day you were born all leave a mark you can find under a microscope.

Kaita Gurian will show you how to read one. Daily growth lines laid down like tree rings, the scar of being born, and what teeth from archaeological sites still reveal about the diets, health, and origins of people who died thousands of years ago.

Kaita is a sixth-year PhD candidate in biological anthropology at The Ohio State University where she studies what teeth can tell us about stress and development before and around birth. Her dissertation uses microscopic and digital imaging of baby teeth from a Boston-area clinical study to investigate how maternal health and stress during pregnancy leave a permanent record in children’s dental hard tissues.

Food and drink will be available from the kitchen at Shadowbox Live! Use the code “getnerdy” to lower the $8 suggested donation to $4.