Difference in striae periodicity of Heilongjiang and Singaporean Chinese teeth

Abstract

Striae periodicity refers to the number of cross-striations between successive lines of Retzius in tooth enamel. A regular time dependency of striae periodicity, known as the circaseptan interval, has been proposed. Previous studies on striae periodicity have been carried out on both modern and early humans given its potential applications in forensic age estimations and anthropology. Nevertheless, research comparing striae periodicities across gender groups and populations in different geographical locations, particularly in Asia, is lacking. In this study, we compared the striae periodicities of Heilongjiang and Singaporean Chinese, as well as that of Singaporean Chinese males and females. Results showed that while the median striae periodicity counts of Heilongjiang Chinese and Singaporean Chinese teeth are both 7, Heilongjiang Chinese tend to have lower striae periodicity counts than Singaporean Chinese (p < 0.01). No significant gender difference was observed between the median striae periodicity of Singaporean Chinese Female and Singaporean Chinese Male teeth (p = 0.511). We concluded that the median striae periodicity may statistically differ with geographical location, but not gender, provided that ethnicity and geographical location are held constant. Further studies are required to examine the causes for variation in striae periodicities between geographical locations, as well as to verify the other bio-environmental determinants of striae periodicity. © 2017 Tan, Sim and Hsu.