A Tooth Lost is Knowledge Gained 
Senior Project Personnel
- Kathleen Paul, University of Arkansas
Student Project Personnel
- Sidney Thompson, University of Arkansas
Project Description & Aims
The UARK Tooth Fairy Project aims to develop an educational bridge between campus and community by leveraging relationships with oral health professionals to expand teaching and student research collections at the University of Arkansas.
The Department of Anthropology teaches several dental evolution and dental science-focused courses to majors and non-majors, alike. Currently, students learn human dental anatomy from images and soft-gum dental models with removable plastic teeth. However, the problem with models is that all teeth are the same, with many of morphological features obscured. This means that students, many going on to become practicing dentists, are unable to view common variation (e.g., cusp and fissure patterns, root anomalies, crests) that they will encounter throughout their dental school training and career.
The way to solve this issue is by developing a teaching collection comprised of sanitized and de-identified teeth donated by patients and clinicians following routine extraction at private offices. While the Department of Anthropology houses such a collection of extracted wisdom teeth (third molars), students have limited access to donated baby teeth (deciduous teeth) or other elements, including incisors, canines, and premolars.
Through the UARK Tooth Fairy Project, we are developing a donation and curation program to build dental teaching and student research collections with tangible impacts on career readiness. Hands-on learning activities that draw on observable variation in real teeth will apply directly to future clinical training. The UARK Tooth Fairy Collection will provide opportunities for capstone/honors projects that closely relate to student career paths and interests. The collection will also represent a key resource for MA/MS student projects and graduate student training.
Teeth will be immediately available for research and teaching, with outcomes regularly updated on the project website. Each year, the UARK Tooth Fairy Project will offer impact reports to clinicians to share with patients and provide a presentation on sample development, use, and student research findings to the NW Arkansas Academy of Interdisciplinary Dentofacial Therapy. The funded project will span two years, however the hope is for growth and curation of this collection to continue indefinitely. The ultimate goal is to collect 5,000 individual teeth, with collection ongoing beyond the two-year time frame of the funded project, once a donation infrastructure is in place.
If you would like to donate or participate in the UARK Tooth Fairy Project, please email Kathleen Paul (kspaul@uark.edu).
Related Funding
- 2025-2026 Teaching and Faculty Support Center Student Success Grant (PI: K Paul)