Dental caries found in the human skull of Tang dynasty excavated from Xi'an

VernacularTitle:西安市唐代遗址出土人颅骨标本的龋病研究
Author: Yong MENG ¹ ; Jin-Ling SHAO ; Hai-Tao LI ; Dan XIAO ; Dai-Yun LIU
Author Information

1. 第四军医大学口腔医学院
Keywords: History; ancient; Dental caries; DMF index
From: Chinese Journal of Stomatology 2008;43(11):686-688
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Objective To investigate the status of dental caries in the human of Tang dynasty. Methods All teeth in 62 human skulls of Tang dynasty excavated from the Chang'an county in Xi'an city were examined and analyzed by statistics. The difference of prevalence in different group including age, sex and tooth position was tested with Chi-square test. Results The prevalence of dental caries was 62.9%. And there were 92 caries teeth, which was 14.6% of the whole teeth. The root caries(33.3%) was more than the oeclusal caries(28.7% ). The most frequent recorded caries were the third molar, followed by the second molar, then the first molar. There was no significant difference between male and female. Conclusions The dental caries was popular in human of Tang dynasty, but the prevalence lowers than the modem people. And with the human evolution and the improvement of the social productivity, the prevalence of dental caries was gradually ascending.