Enamel hypoplasia in a Canadian historic sample

Abstract

Analyses of historical skeletal samples provide useful comparisons of the prevalence of skeletal indicators of stress to documentary information on health, diet, and socioeconomic status. A sample of the permanent dentitions of 253 adults from the St. Thomas' Anglican Church 19th‐century skeletal sample in Belleville, Ontario, was examined macroscopically for the prevalence of enamel defects on the six anterior maxillary and mandibular teeth. The maximum frequency of hypoplasias on the left mandibular canine is 36.1%. The prevalence of enamel defects is low to moderate compared to almost all other reported frequencies in historical samples, which is consistent with historical descriptions of this developing community of middle to high socioeconomic status Canadians. Hypoplasias are significantly more frequent in males but there are no significant differences in the mean age at death between individuals with hypoplasia and those without. Calculations of the peak ages of occurrence of hypoplasias fall within the commonly observed 2–4‐year range. This is not consistent with separate studies, demographic, isotopic and historical, of the introduction of complementary foods to 19th‐century Belleville infants and of the weaning process. These results do not support the view that peak ages of occurrence of hypoplastic defects are associated with the cessation of breast‐feeding or the weaning process in general. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 11:513–524, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Man Bac (Terra Australis 33): The Excavation of a Neolithic Site in Northern Vietnam

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Biological Responses to Change in Prehistoric Viet Nam

“…When only examining those individuals that survived the LEHsensitive years, it would appear that there is a correlation between survival to older age and absence of LEH in both samples. Such a relationship between the presence of LEH and decreased mean age at death has been noted in a number of studies (Duray 1996;Goodman and Armelagos 1988;Saunders and Keenleyside 1999).…”

Missing defects? A comparison of microscopic and macroscopic approaches to identifying linear enamel hypoplasia

“…This discrepancy in observation may go some way to explaining the different mean ages of defect presence or even the theoretical existence of "peak" ages of defect formation reported in previous research utilizing macroscopic observation that are frequently attributed to the deleterious of impact of weaning on health (e.g., Moggi-Cecchi et al, 1994;Wood, 1996;Santos and Coimbra, 1999;Saunders and Keenleyside, 1999). The distribution of defects observed using the Macro method seem to occur in a "saw tooth," punctuated pattern, whereas the defects observed by the Micro method occur in a more regular distribution.…”