A detailed study of enamel hypoplasia in a post-medieval adolescent of known age and sex

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Developmental disturbances that affect the secretion of enamel matrix can cause defective enamel structure. Linear hypoplasia is one type of enamel defect and manifests itself as a furrow that runs around the circumference of the tooth. Such defects range in size from the microscopic to those that are several millimetres wide. Enamel defects have been widely used by anthropologists for the investigation of growth disruptions in past populations, as they provide a permanent record of disturbances during much of a child’s developmental period. This is a detailed case study of enamel growth disruptions in a 15-year-old female from the 18th and 19th century crypt of Christ Church, Spitalfields. The method used relates linear enamel hypoplasia to the incremental structures in the enamel surface, the perikymata, in order to investigate the timing of growth disturbances. Linear enamel hypoplasia was defined here as a greater than expected spacing between neighbouring pairs of perikymata. In addition, this study used recently published histological data on the precise timing of tooth development to establish chronologies for growth disruptions. Defects were matched in at least two teeth with overlapping developmental schedules to ensure that systemic disturbances, as opposed to localised traumas, were identified. Thirteen enamel defects were matched between five different teeth from the same individual from Spitalfields. Most linear enamel hypoplasias were evident on the anterior dentition. Using an 8-day average perikymata periodicity, the age at first defect in this individual was calculated as 1.5 years and the last growth disruption occurred when she was 4.6 years of age. The distribution of the defects was examined to identify any seasonal pattern in the occurrence of the growth disturbances.