Increasing human tooth length between birth and 5.4 years

Abstract

Most previous studies of tooth development have used fractional stages of tooth formation to construct growth standards suitable for aging juvenile skeletal material. A simple alternative for determining dental age is to measure tooth length throughout development. In this study, data on tooth length development are presented from 63 individuals of known age at death, between birth and 5.4 years, from an archeological population recovered from the crypt of Christ Church, Spitalfields, London. Isolated developing teeth (304 deciduous, 269 permanent) were measured in millimeters and plotted against individual age. Regression equations to estimate age from a given tooth length, are presented for each deciduous maxillary and mandibular tooth type and for permanent maxillary and mandibular incisors, canines, and first permanent molars. Data on the earliest age of root completion of deciduous teeth and initial mineralization and crown completion of some permanent teeth in this sample are given, as well as the average crown height and total tooth length from a small number of unworn teeth. This method provides an easy, quantitative and objective measure of dental formation appropriate for use by archeologists and anthropologists.