The Mysteries of Our Teeth

Overview

Simply by glancing at your teeth, a dentist may learn a lot about your health and everyday routine. But did you know that archaeologists have found that teeth contain a lot more data than previously thought? By examining the chemical makeup of teeth, we can learn what kinds of food a person consumed as well as the location of the food's origin. Even in the absence of written records, the movements and diets of humans can be reconstructed from teeth found in archaeological sites using a technique called isotope analysis. In this post, we'll talk about the materials that make up our teeth and how isotope analysis can be used to study ancient individuals.

Consider the differences between a cow's teeth and those of a lion. Long and razor-sharp, lion teeth are designed for grabbing prey and slicing through meat. Large and flat, cow teeth are ideal for eating plant matter. The animals' teeth provide information on the kinds of food they consume and how they chew it. How about teeth from people? We have both flat teeth (molars) for grinding plant matter and sharp teeth (canines) for cutting since we eat both meat and plants.

What else may be inferred from your teeth? Have you lost one or chipped one? Have you got braces on? Do you routinely brush your teeth? However, more than simply your teeth visible features can be used to infer information about you! Researchers in archaeology can learn even more by analyzing the chemical makeup of teeth. We can determine a person's diet and residence throughout the period when the tooth was developing.

You will develop 52 teeth in your lifetime. 20 deciduous trees first the initial set of teeth to come through. They burst when you're a baby and fall out when you're a kid. Compared to adult teeth, they are smaller and less durable. 32 permanent (adult) teeth follow 32 primaries (baby) teeth. Your teeth come in incisors, canines, premolars, and molars varieties. All of these teeth develop at various times, from before birth until adolescence. When teeth are growing, they absorb chemical components from the food and water the person consumes. Since each tooth is effectively a time capsule that does not alter once it forms, teeth can be incredibly helpful to archaeologists. But if you break a tooth, it won't heal by itself; you'll need to visit a dentist. This is because the cells die once your teeth form. Your teeth are still made of the same substance as they were when they were first created. This means that each of your teeth has the molecular imprint of your formative surroundings. This enables archaeologists to learn more about an adult's early years by studying the skeleton.

We have a fantastic opportunity to learn some of this information by examining the chemistry of teeth. Because there are fewer and fewer written records of what individuals were doing, where they lived, and what their main diets were as we travel further back in time, tooth data is incredibly helpful. In this post, we'll look at the mysteries of our teeth and how scientists all over the world use them to learn more about the evolution of humanity.

Anatomy of Our Teeth

A root and a crown make up a human tooth. While the roots are hidden beneath your gums and secure your teeth into your jaw, you can only see the crowns of your teeth when you look in the mirror. Enamel is the term for the crown's exterior. the tooth's crown is shielded by a thin, durable coating. The human body's toughest substance is this one. and if you run your finger down your teeth, you will detect that. Dentine, which makes up the inner structure of the crown and the root of the tooth and is a bone-like tissue that lies behind the enamel, lies beneath the enamel. 

The mineral hydroxyapatite, which is powerful and dense, is used to make both enamel and dentine. Your bones and teeth are made of the mineral that gives them their hardness and strength. The hardest tissue in the human body is enamel, which contains more than 95% hydroxyapatite by weight. Bone is more like dentine since it is less durable. Dentine contains roughly 70% hydroxyapatite by weight.

Dental Isotope Measurement

The chemistry of teeth can be used by archaeologists to determine the diets and migrations of prehistoric people. This is accomplished by calculating the ratios of specific isotopes. variations of the same-element atoms that have a varied amount of neutrons despite having the same number of protons. within the dentine and enamel of samples of ancient teeth. Isotopes are various atoms that belong to the same element and have the same number of protons, but varying numbers of neutrons. For instance, the majority of carbon on Earth (also known as carbon-12) includes six protons and six neutrons, while just about 1% of carbon has six protons and seven neutrons (carbon-13). Although both carbon-12 and carbon-13 are carbon, the extra neutron in carbon-13 makes it somewhat heavier.

Researchers can learn critical details about the meals of prehistoric humans and their migrations from one region to another by measuring these extremely minute changes between two isotopes. We initially drill out a tiny sample of enamel or dentine to analyze isotopes. To make sure we are only measuring the chemical elements we are interested in, this powder is then chemically cleansed. The cleaned sample is thereafter examined on a sizable apparatus known as a mass spectrometer. A scientific device that counts the quantity of each isotope in the sample to provide us with an isotope ratio and uses the charge and mass of the atoms to measure the chemical elements in a sample.