Adapting Clinical Tooth Wear Assessment Methods for Biological Anthropology Contexts

Tooth wear is increasingly recognized as an adaptive process that can help optimize mastication and maintain oral health. In this study, we apply clinical wear-assessment methods to quantify occlusal tissue loss in first molars of seven Australian Aboriginal individuals from Yuendumu (1950s-1970s), whose diet combined traditional hunter-gatherer foods with processed Western items.

High-resolution surface scans of dental casts were analyzed using WearCompare to assess wear patterns during dental development and evaluate the applicability of these tools in a biological anthropology context.

Clinical methods designed for assessing pathological wear can effectively capture normal physiological wear in populations with medium-high tissue loss rates. Average annual tissue loss was 4 mm³ (0.05 mm³/mm²), with the highest wear regions losing an average of 215 μm in thickness per year. Substantial temporal variation in the magnitude and distribution of wear, and variation among individuals, was observed, reflecting changes in occlusion, masticatory forces, craniofacial growth, and cultural/dietary behaviors all in association with dental eruption sequences.

These findings highlight the utility of digital quantification of dental tissue loss for anthropological research. In particular, these methods have significant potential for assessing tooth wear in contemporary human and non-human primate samples, and for refining macroscopic wear scoring systems in paleontological and archaeological contexts by using modern analogues for calibration and refinement. These methods can also complement other wear analysis techniques (e.g., microwear analysis, occlusal fingerprint analysis), as well as studies on tooth morphology and structure, offering broader applications in evolutionary inferences and dietary reconstructions.