IBA ANALYSIS OF A POSSIBLE THERAPEUTIC ANCIENT TOOTH INLAY

Five pre-Columbian human teeth from the same skeleton found during exc avation in an ancient ceremonial center in Mexico, have been analyzed by two conventional Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) techniques: PIXE and He-4 RES. The anthropologists have estimated that the skeleton is about 200 0 years old. X-ray radiography studies of one of these teeth have reve aled that they contain an inlay in the tooth crown. The IBA methods ha ve been used to study the inlay materials and also the tooth enamel. T he IBA studies show that the tooth inlay materials have almost the sam e atomic composition as the tooth enamel. These results suggest that t he tooth inlay were made for therapeutic purposes, using healthy tooth grains as inlay materials which were glued into the prepared teeth to fill it up. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.