Dental tissue grows at the rate of four micrometres per day and that’s shown by striations on the tooth. Like the age of a tree trunk, really. So we can tell the age of young people to within twenty days. If we have the entire jaw, we can assess age by taking X-rays of the teeth and dental eruptions into the mouth, but that’s not an option here. Past the age of twenty-five, the biting surfaces wear down, gums recede, pulp chambers become smaller, roots are resorbed and the tips of roots become translucent, so in adults we estimate age by decades rather than years.’
