The applicability of dental wear in age estimation for a modern American population

Abstract

This study demonstrates age estimation from dental wear is possible for modern populations, with comparable age intervals to other established methods. It provides a quantifiable method of seriation into "older" and "younger" adult categories, and provides more reliable age interval estimates than cranial sutures in instances where only the skull is available.

How old are you now? A new ageing method for nonadults based on dental wear

“…Some of the previous ageing methods using dental wear had success in applying linear regression (e.g., Faillace et al, ; Kim et al, ; Maat, ; Yun, Lee, Chung, Kho, & Kim, ); however, in this study, the coefficient of determination ( R 2 ) for both the quadratic regression and MARS models were higher than that of the linear model, and an examination of the residuals showed an irregular distribution for the linear regression, suggesting that the correlation between age and wear of nonadults may not be entirely linear (Figure ). This deviation from a linear trend could be due to several methodological and/or physiological issues including, but not limited to, (a) dentine exposure, (b) differences between deciduous and permanent dentitions, (c) issues with the scoring methods, and (d) sample size and composition.…”

“…The ability to estimate age from dental wear relies on a simple concept that the large mineral component of enamel (approximately 97%) is unable to remodel once development of the crown is complete, thus gradually being worn away with time as the dentition is used for mastication and extramasticatory activities (Fitzgerald & Rose, 2008;Hillson, 1996). In populations with somewhat homogeneous diets, both the deciduous (i.e., baby or milk) and permanent (i.e., adult) teeth are subject to a fairly constant rate of wear, providing the framework for various methods of age-atdeath estimation for adults (Brothwell, 1972;Faillace, Bethard, & Marks, 2017;Kim, Kho, & Lee, 2000;Kvaal, Kolltveit, Thomsen, & Solheim, 1995;Lovejoy, 1985;Maat, 2001;Mays, 2002;Mays, de la Rua, & Molleson, 1995); however, this concept has yet to be applied to nonadults. Previous studies employing deciduous dental wear have noted a strong correlation between the observed wear and age but were mainly focused on dietary transitions related to weaning and potential dietary differences in social status (Dawson & Brown, 2013;Mahoney et al, 2016;Mays, 2016;Mays & Pett, 2014;Prowse et al, 2008).…”

Variation in dental morphology and inference of continental ancestry in admixed Latin Americans

“…The relevance of dental wear as a proxy of biological age has been highly exploited in bioarchaeology (Lovejoy, ). Our findings suggest that in contemporary humans, despite the consumption of soft and processed foods, the effect of age on dental wear is considerable (Faillace, Bethard, & Marks, ). Finally, we found that five traits were correlated with sex: TDUI1, TDUC, MRUC, DARUC, and DARLC.…”

The correlation between the tooth wear of the first molar and the estimated age from the auricular surfaces in a Joseon Dynasty population, South Korea

“…Thus, discrete, noncontinuous, and qualitative characteristics of the data produced by ordinal scales are limited when comparing the results derived from other age estimation methods (Han, 2013; Takei, 1984; Walker, 1978). Some studies criticize this, holding that the degree of dental wear can be arbitrary and does not provide results for the degrees of dental wear researchers set out (Falys & Lewis, 2011), although macroscopic methods for evaluating dental wear are relatively quick and cost‐effective (Ball, 2002; Faillace, Bethard, & Marks, 2017).…”