Recent research (headed by lead author doctoral candidate Jacob I. Griffith) has found no clear evidence that periods of vitamin D deficiency (identified as periods of interglobular dentine, IGD) altered carbon and nitrogen isotope values preserved in human tooth dentine. The study analysed nine teeth, representing nine individuals, from three post-medieval (17 th and 19 th cent. AD) cemeteries across the Netherlands (Beemster and Hattem) and Belgium (the church of St. Anne, Koekelberg).

Using high-resolution sequential dentine sampling, researchers compared carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) isotope values with areas of IGD, a microscopic mineralisation defect linked with periods of childhood vitamin D deficiency. The team applied two leading sampling methods, micro-slicing and micro-punching, to reconstruct weaning strategies and dietary changes during early childhood.

The results showed no measurable minimal isotopic differences between dentine formed during periods with and without IGD. The authors conclude that the presence of IGD, and as such childhood vitamin D deficiency, does not distort sequential δ 13 C and δ 15 N profiles, and, as such, weaning and diet reconstructions.