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Scientists from the University of Kent have used 3-D microscopic imaging to create a new technique to study the teeth of children between the 11th and 15th centuries. The present alternative techniques can damage the teeth, although the new 3-D imaging technique, called dental microwear texture analysis, can prevent the damage.

With the new method, the team studied the fossils of "Chaucer's children," who lived near the Canterbury Cathedral on which Geoffrey Chaucer, the first great English poet, had based " The Canterbury Tales," according to BBC News.

'Dental microwear texture analysis' could help to assess the microscopic changes in the teeth's surface topography, and was also the first time that it was used on the children's teeth, said the university's press release.

Hence, the issues that became clear was the children's diet and the difference between poor and wealthy families in medieval Canterbury, even as the teeth remained intact.

Patrick Mahoney, the biological anthropologist and head of the team, who is an expert on the dental development of modern children, believes in the new technique's potential applications and the role it can play in today's anthropological studies.

The findings were published in the Jan.18, 2016 issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.