Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Age Estimation from Dental Histology
Gustafson Method and Derivatives
One of the most well-known methods for estimating age-at-death from histological thin
sections of teeth is the Gustafson method. First developed in 1947, and later revised in
1950, the method is based on the scoring of six age-related factors identified in the histolog-
ical sections of the teeth. The six factors that are studied are (1) dental attrition, (2) periodon-
tosis, (3) secondary dentin deposition, (4) cement apposition, (5) root resorption, and (6)
transparency of the root (
Gustafson, 1950
). The original method by Gustafson utilized
a simple linear regression between the total score based on all six components and the age
of the individual at death. There have been numerous revisions and recalculations based
on the original Gustafson method. For review of the method and the revisions see
Johanson
(1971), Maples (1978), Rice and Maples (1979)
, and
Lucy and Pollard (1995)
.
Cementum Annulations
In many large mammals, the age estimation technique of correlating the amount of
cementum on the root of the tooth with age is commonly used (
Morris, 1978; Stott et al.,
1980; Lieberman, 1993; Hillson, 1996
). The first study to attempt to apply the methodology
to the human species was by
Stott et al. (1982)
. The theory behind using cementum annula-
tions for age-at-death estimation is similar to counting the rings on a tree trunk. The premise
is that cementum is deposited on the root of the tooth at a constant rate during the life of the
individual, and by measuring the thickness of the cementum, age-at-death can be calculated.
However, as noted by several authors the biologic basis behind this theory has not been
clearly demonstrated (
Hillson, 1996
).
Once a tooth has been sectioned, the cementum annulations are visible as alternating
bands of light and dark, when using either microradiography or polarized light microscopy.
There have been multiple studies on a variety of different methods utilizing this technique,
but the results can be considered variable at best (for a review see
Miller et al., 1988; Lipsinic
et al., 1986; Charles et al., 1989
; and
Hillson, 1996
). The greatest success in utilizing this tech-
nique involves teeth sectioned with a Microtome (see upcoming section on histological
methods), which have been decalcified and stained with hemaotoxylin preparations. This
preparation can be extremely destructive and is often problematic for archaeological
samples. As studies have shown, teeth can have a highly variable distribution of cementum
along the root, so the ideal situation involves multiple sections per tooth (
Hillson, 1996
).
CASE STUDY OF DENTAL HISTOLOGY IN FORENSIC
A
NTHROPOLOGY: THE PROBLEM OF PINK TEET
H
The phenomenon of “pink teeth,” which is described as a postmortem pink discoloration
of the teeth, was first documented by
Bell (1829)
and others in the middle nineteenth century,
and was always associated with “unnatural death” and “foul play.” However, it was the pink
teeth of the two buried victims of the high-profile Christie murders in the early 1950s that
2
This research was conducted at the University of Tennessee and presented by
Kroman and Marks (2003)
.
