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Updated: May 14, 2026

Precision of In Vivo Quantitative Tooth Wear Measurement Using Intra-Oral Scans
Published on: July 12, 2022
Exploring the relationship between dental wear and status in late medieval subadults from England
Heidi Dawson1, Kate Robson Brown
1Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UU, England. Heidi.Dawson@bristol.ac.uk
Abstract:
Dental wear patterns were recorded on 458 deciduous molar teeth, of 142 subadults from late medieval (AD 1086-1539) England, to explore the relationship between dental wear and burial status of children. A new ordinal method for scoring dental wear stages on the deciduous molar teeth was devised. It was postulated that if a discernible relationship between dental wear stage and burial location could be seen then this could reflect a difference in diet between those receiving higher or lower status burial. The dental wear stages recorded were statistically similar for the dentitions of subadults from different cemeteries, as well as from different burial locations, indicating a comparable diet for the children studied.
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