Enamel Hypoplasia as a Marker for Sex Estimation: A Review

Abstract

Abstract: Changes in enamel during teeth development are permanently recorded, and some, like enamel hypoplasia (EH), can be linked with stressful events. As males and females may respond differently to stress, EH may have a different prevalence between the sexes. The present work mainly aims to identify which factors may lead to the different EH types, analyse how they manifest between sexes, and check if, in the presence of EH, one can infer about a person’s sex. Our results point to occasional differences in EH prevalence in deciduous dentition between sexes, with males displaying more EH. As for permanent dentition, EH prevalence appears to be strongly associated with the living conditions, namely nutrition, occluding any possible sex bias. Therefore, EH in deciduous teeth can be useful for sex estimation; yet, in permanent dentition, other factors may be responsible for the differences and more studies, with control of environmental factors (for example, twin studies) are needed to understand if sex differences exist as well.