TY - JOUR
T1 - Timing of Development of the Permanent Mandibular Dentition
T2 - New Reference Values from the Fels Longitudinal Study
AU - Šešelj, Maja
AU - Sherwood, Richard J.
AU - Konigsberg, Lyle W.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their feedback, which has improved the clarity of the manuscript. The Margaret and Hermann Sokol Postdoctoral Fellowship to M. Šešelj from the New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science provided funding for data collection from the FLS radiographic database. The craniodental research program of the FLS has a long and storied history. We are particularly grateful to the efforts of Stanley Garn and Arthur Lewis who, along with others, published extensively on growth of the cranium and dentition over several decades. Support for the craniodental program came, in part, from the United States Public Health Service and the National Institute of Dental Research, National Institutes of Health (now the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research), in the 1960s and 1970s. The craniodental program was reinvigorated in the 2000s with several NIDCR grants to R.J. Sherwood. We are grateful to the diligence of previous Fels researchers, the supporting agencies, and, most importantly, the lifelong dedication of the Fels Longitudinal Study participants. With over 85 years of contributions, the Fels families have rightfully earned a place of honor in the history of human growth, development, and aging.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Association for Anatomy
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - Estimating chronological age or assessing the rate of maturation in immature individuals is an important task in biological anthropology and clinical practice. One of the most reliable ways of doing this is by evaluating one's dental development, specifically tooth mineralization. However, few chronologies include reference values for very young children, and few provide an extensive documentation of the range of variation surrounding the reported reference values. We present a new chronology of development of permanent mandibular canine and postcanine teeth from birth through age 28 years, based on over 6,000 radiographs of 590 participants of the Fels Longitudinal Study, recorded between 1940 and 1982. Tooth mineralization was scored following the 14-stage system of Moorrees, Fanning, and Hunt (Moorrees et al., 1963a) with an additional crypt stage. We calculated ages of attainment, as well as average age in stage, using transition analysis. We find that variation increases throughout ontogeny for all teeth, though it is generally comparable between girls and boys. The tempo of dental development tends to be faster in girls. Compared to the classic chronology of Moorrees et al. (1963a), partly based on Fels radiographs, in our sample the development of crowns tends to occur at earlier, and development of roots at increasingly later ages. Our results are more similar to chronologies based on more recent, clinical samples (Liversidge, 2009), though the development of tooth roots in our sample occurs at older ages. Anat Rec, 302:1733–1753, 2019.
AB - Estimating chronological age or assessing the rate of maturation in immature individuals is an important task in biological anthropology and clinical practice. One of the most reliable ways of doing this is by evaluating one's dental development, specifically tooth mineralization. However, few chronologies include reference values for very young children, and few provide an extensive documentation of the range of variation surrounding the reported reference values. We present a new chronology of development of permanent mandibular canine and postcanine teeth from birth through age 28 years, based on over 6,000 radiographs of 590 participants of the Fels Longitudinal Study, recorded between 1940 and 1982. Tooth mineralization was scored following the 14-stage system of Moorrees, Fanning, and Hunt (Moorrees et al., 1963a) with an additional crypt stage. We calculated ages of attainment, as well as average age in stage, using transition analysis. We find that variation increases throughout ontogeny for all teeth, though it is generally comparable between girls and boys. The tempo of dental development tends to be faster in girls. Compared to the classic chronology of Moorrees et al. (1963a), partly based on Fels radiographs, in our sample the development of crowns tends to occur at earlier, and development of roots at increasingly later ages. Our results are more similar to chronologies based on more recent, clinical samples (Liversidge, 2009), though the development of tooth roots in our sample occurs at older ages. Anat Rec, 302:1733–1753, 2019.
KW - Fels longitudinal study
KW - age estimation
KW - dental formation
KW - transition analysis
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U2 - 10.1002/ar.24108
DO - 10.1002/ar.24108
M3 - Article
C2 - 30851146
AN - SCOPUS:85063338524
SN - 1932-8486
VL - 302
SP - 1733
EP - 1753
JO - Anatomical Record
JF - Anatomical Record
IS - 10
ER -