In recent years, the Tooth Cementum Annulations method has been demonstrated to be highly effective at estimating age at death in permanent teeth. Prior to this study, no validation studies have attempted to use TCA to age deciduous teeth. Deciduous teeth provide unique challenges for anthropologists seeking to use the TCA method. Among these are the constraint that cementum annulations are only countable immediately before and after the root apex closes, and the fact that in healthy teeth the cementum record is destined to be destroyed by rhizolysis, so cementum annulations will only be available in teeth that are surgically extracted, or in teeth from juvenile decedents. From a practical standpoint, we found that methods that had previously yielded good results in permanent teeth worked much less well in deciduous teeth. The use of high magnification, bright-field illumination, and analyzing multiple regions of interest per tooth are all recommended for best results.

The main areas of research which involve human remains today are detailed and a brief history of how remains have been incorporated into osteological studies in the past is considered. One important aspect of the research undertaken today with human remains is that it often has real-world applications. Rather than being driven purely by academic curiosity, which in the past looked for similarities and differences in remains, today researchers try to answer specific scientific questions. These can range from a better understanding of how children grow and develop, the effects of disease on bones, how our activities can shape our skeletons and looking for disease vectors and parasites in the remains themselves. The chapter also looks at the many different techniques used to examine remains, ranging from the well-known traditional methods to newer more high-tech techniques. The chapter gives examples of the real-world issues that museum collections of human remains have addressed. It also highlights problems inherent in working with human remains and the changes in attitude to providing access for scientific research that have occurred in recent years.