Primary Tooth Mineralization and Exfoliation Ages Calculated from the Moorrees-Fanning-Hunt Study

Abstract

Staging of the formation of teeth and shedding of the primary teeth are particularly useful for age estimation of archaeological and forensic specimens, as well as for gauging whether a child’s tempo of maturation is progressing within normal limits. Staging can be done using radiographs or with direct inspection of dental remains. Standards for the primary dentition are scarce, but obviously needed for young children. This note provides tables, by sex, of the normative ages of the mineralization of three mandibular tooth types (c, m1, m2) as well as of root resorption and times of shedding of these tooth types. The data are transformed from charts developed by Moorrees, Fanning and Hunt (1963 Am J Phys Anthropol 21:99-108). Conversion to numeric form is intended to aid in using these data for statistical comparisons.