The Dental Anthropology team at CENIEH has reconstructed the worn enamel of lower molars through a more accurate technique that is easily exportable to other anatomic elements.
The Dental Anthropology team at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has just published an article in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology proposing a new methodology for the reconstruction of worn teeth that can be applied both to modern human populations, and to the fossil record and the forensic sciences. This methodology improves the accuracy of measurements compared to prior methodologies.
In this article, led by Mario Modesto-Mata, a new procedure is proposed based on polynomial regression equations to reconstruct the worn enamel of lower molars, using plans obtained through the microcomputed tomography technique located at CENIEH. It also provides a detailed explanation into the reconstruction protocol, making it possible to export it to other teeth or anatomic elements.
This methodology has been validated based on two different dental variables that are fundamental in determining the time of formation of the enamel and its rates of extension: the width of the enamel of a specific cusp of the lower molars (known as protoconid) and the height of the crown of this same cusp, or cuspal enamel. Simulations of worn teeth have been used to complete the validation process.
The reconstruction of these variables has also been carried out in accordance with methodologies that have previously been described in scientific literature, which did not undergo a validation process, in order to compare the results of all of the available methods.
Greater accuracy
The most noteworthy results indicate that the average error rate of our methodology is -2.17% for the width of the cuspal enamel and -3.18% in the case of the height of the crown, values that represent a significant improvement compared to the results of the other procedures.
"Therefore, this methodology should not only be applied to the reconstruction of the cuspal enamel of the lower molars, as it improves the accuracy of measurements compared to other methodologies, it is easily exportable to other teeth and, more importantly, it makes it possible to ascertain associated statistical errors and intervals", states Mario Modesto-Mata.
