Missing lateral incisors in Iron Age South-East Asians as possible indicators of dental agenesis

The absence of lateral incisors is generally a reflection of agenesis or hypodontia, with a significant genetic basis and possibly environmental influence on the phenotypic expression. A human skeletal sample from the Iron Age cemetery of Noen U-Loke in Thailand has a very high prevalence at 79% of adults (30/38) with at least one incisor missing in either maxilla or mandible. If the cause of this high rate is genetic, it may be indicative of homogeneity, and, therefore, endogamy and probably isolation, of the population represented. Supporting agenesis as the explanation for this is the lack of space between the central incisors and canines in more than half the cases. An alternative explanation is that the teeth may have been lost during life through pathology or deliberate removal (ablation). There is no evidence in the form of remodelled lesions for pathological loss of the teeth. Although there were no significant differences between males and females in the numbers of teeth missing, there were significant differences in the patterns of loss, with males having more missing teeth on the right and females more on the left. No evidence was found in the clinical literature of agenesis involving side preference by sex, so this may indicate deliberate removal of the teeth. Males were also more likely than females to have no space for the missing teeth. Ablation of teeth has been recorded in other prehistoric South-East Asian populations but in these cases the evidence was much clearer. Agenesis seems to offer the most likely explanation for the missing teeth at Noen U-Loke and if so, indicates that a small, isolated population may develop a very high rate of hypodontia, with a side preference dependent on sex.