Difficulties in estimating age using root dentine translucency in human teeth of varying antiquity

Estimation of age at death is an essential part of reconstructing information from skeletal material. This becomes more difficult after development has ceased and following taphonomic alteration in archaeological material. Most biological markers of age do not record the chronological age (calendar age), but the biological or physiological age of the individual. Of the age-related changes in the mature dentition of modern samples, the extent of root dentine translucency (RDT) has been shown to correlate closely with chronological age. A protocol for measurement of RDT was established and applied to modern and archaeological teeth of known age (Spitalfields sample). Percentage length of RDT in sectioned teeth was found to correlate well with chronological age in the modern sample but not in the archaeological sample. The majority of the archaeological sample was affected by a morphological change creating a “chalky” appearance to the dentine. Removal of the obviously affected teeth did not improve the correlation coefficients to any useful degree. “Chalky” dentine appeared, under the light microscope, to be composed of large fenestrations, islands of mineralized tissue and masses of filiform structures that appeared to be following the path of the dentinal tubules in their invasion of the peripheral dentine. The filiform structures are consistent in their appearance with a previously reported tunnelling mycelium and impart such an effect on RDT that it cannot readily be used for age estimation in affected teeth.