Quantitative assessment of interproximal wear facet outlines for the association of isolated molars

Bibliographic Data

ID8318635
AuthorsStefano Benazzi (0000-0003-4305-6920, University of Vienna, corresponding author), L Fiorenza (0000-0001-7110-3398, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt/M), Stanislav Katina (0000-0002-3256-5482, University of Vienna), E Bruner (0000-0002-6686-4616, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana), Ottmar Kullmer (0000-0002-5929-8070, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt/M)
Year2011
Volume144
Issue2
Pages309-316
Publication date2011-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.21413
PMID21069871
OpenAlexW1988803130
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited19

The determination of the minimum number of individuals can be very challenging, especially in an assemblage of fragmentary bones and isolated teeth. Similarities in tooth morphology, degree of wear, and interproximal wear facets (IPWF) are generally used to associate isolated teeth qualitatively. However, no quantitative method has yet been established for an objective identification and matching of isolated tooth crowns. In this study, we analyze the IPWF morphology of adjacent mandibular molars (17 M 1 /M 2 pairs), applying both qualitative and quantitative methods to test a reproducible approach for crown association. The surfaces of distal (for M 1 ) and mesial (for M 2 ) IPWF were surface‐scanned and digitally selected. Three‐dimensional (3D) and two‐dimensional (2D) outlines of IPWF were analyzed using elliptic Fourier analysis (EFA) and geometric morphometrics methods (GMM). Additionally, teeth were qualitatively associated by visual evaluation of the IPWF outline and by physical matching. Unsatisfactory results with less than 50% of tooth pairs correctly associated were obtained by using both methods, shape analysis (digital approach) and the visual evaluation (qualitative assessment) of the IPWF outline. The physical matching of the crowns showed highly variable accuracy ranging between 53% and 77%. The quantitative form‐space analysis of 2D IPWF outlines provided the best results (82% of correctly associated teeth), but no statistically significant differences were recorded when compared with the manual matching. Since three tooth pairs out of 17 could not be quantitatively associated, we suggest that the quantitative analysis of IPWF should be used only in addition with other approaches.Am J Phys Anthropol, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc

Molar · Quantitative assessment · Statistics · Superimposition · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Dentistry · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Mathematics · Medicine · Morphological variations and asymmetry · Orthodontics · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

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