The development of primary teeth in children from a group of Gambian villages, and critical examination of its use for estimating age

Abstract

1. Numbers of erupted primary teeth were counted in young children in four rural villages in The Gambia. The ages of all children were precisely known, and their heights and weights were measured.2. The majority of children were recorded as having an even number of teeth. The number of primary teeth present in children of given age varied widely. Up to 18 months of age, the Gambian children lagged behind American and European children in number of erupted teeth.3. From the distributions, it appears that a child having no teeth is unlikely to be over 12 months of age, and one with all primary teeth is unlikely to be under 20 months. Between these dental limits, estimates of age from the number of primary teeth present are likely to be accurate to ± 3 or 4 months.4. Children who were tall or heavy for age tended to have more teeth than those who were short or light. Thus, children with delayed dentition would be systematically assessed as younger than true chronological age.5. There was, however, no evidence that slow growth was associated with prolongation of the total period of dental eruption, nor that seasonal variations in rate of growth were associated with similar variations in rate of tooth eruption.

Physical growth and age at eruption of deciduous and permanent teeth in well‐nourished Indian girls from birth to 20 years

“…The association of dental development and physical maturation has also been reported (Billewicz et al, 1973;Lewis and Garn, 1960;Garn et al, 1965;Malcolm, 1970;Malcolm and Bue, 1970;McGregor et al, 1968;Valsik, 1972;Rao et al, 1973). These studies show a positive but low correlation between growth status and dental development, which is consistent with the findings of this study.…”

Malnutrition and Dental Caries: A Review of the Literature

“…An association of delayed eruption with malnutrition has been observed in rats fed protein-or protein-and calorie-defi cient diets [DiOrio et al, 1973;Shaw and Griffi ths, 1963]. Delayed eruption of deciduous teeth in humans was observed in twelve cross-sectional studies and two concurrent cohort studies [Alvarez et al, 1988[Alvarez et al, , 1990[Alvarez et al, , 1995Barrett and Brown, 1966;el Lozy et al, 1975;Enwonwu, 1973;Kanawati and McLaren, 1973;McGregor et al, 1968;Mukherjee, 1973;Neil et al, 1973;Rami Reddy et al, 1986;Sweeney and Guzman, 1966;Toverud, 1956;Visweswara et al, 1973]. In contrast, three other crosssectional studies and one concurrent cohort study found little to no association of eruption times of primary teeth with malnutrition [Delgado et al, 1975;Rami Reddy, 1981;Robinow, 1973;Truswell and Hansen, 1973].…”

Age estimation of children from prehistoric Southeast Asia: are the dental formation methods used appropriate?

“…Dental eruption is affected by extrinsic and intrinsic factors including dental infection, the early loss of a deciduous precursor and environmental factors including nutritional status (Fanning, 1962;Ulijaszek, 1996). However, there are conflicting reports on the severity of under-nutrition that is needed to affect dental eruption (el Lozy et al, 1975;Holman and Yamaguchi, 2005;Jelliffe and Jelliffe, 1973;McGregor et al, 1968), while other research argues that under-nutrition has no effect on this process (Pindborg et al, 1967). An early study by Barrett and Brown (1966) investigating the clinical emergence of teeth in children from a Central Australian aboriginal settlement found a delayed emergence in their first year of life and a difference in the timing and sequence of eruption in older children compared with other groups of children.…”