Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 88. (Budapest 1996)

Ubelaker, D. H. ; Pap, I.: Health profiles of a Bronze Age population from northeastern Hungary

Hypoplastic teeth were slightly more common in males than in females. In the maxilla, hypoplasia was found in 0.38% of males and 0.15% of female teeth. In the mandible, 0.58% of male teeth were hypoplastic while none of the 683 female teeth showed the lesions. Dental caries Of the 3903 permanent teeth sufficiently well preserved to be examined for dental caries, 123 (3.15%) were carious. These lesions were evenly distributed between the maxilla and mandible and between males and females (Table 3). In the maxilla, 57 (3.07%) of 1858 teeth were carious. In the mandible, 66 (3.23%) of 2045 teeth were carious. In the maxilla, male frequency was 3.62% while that of females 3.64%. In the mandible, male frequency was 3.70% while that of females was 4.16%. Of the 123 carious lesions, the majority (51) were cervical caries, involving both the crown and root at their junction. Of the remaining lesions, 26 were root caries, 18 were occlusal caries, 18 were large caries involving destruction of much of the tooth, and 10 were interproximal crown caries. Alveolar abscesses Alveolar abscesses were relatively uncommon in the Tiszafüred sample. Of 4032 observations for abscesses, only 17 (0.42%) were noted (Table 4). Abscesses were slightly more common in maxillary teeth (0.9%) than in mandibular (0.1%). They were evenly distributed between males (1.2% maxillary. 0.2% mandibular) and females (0.9% maxillary, 0.1% mandibular). Abscesses were found associated with 3.5% of maxillary right first molars, 2.8% of maxillary right second premolars, 2.8% of maxillary right first premolars, 1.0% of maxillary right canines, 1.0% of maxillary left canines, 1.9% of maxillary left first premolars, 0.7% of mandibular right second molars, and 1.2% of mandibular left first molars. The abscesses were caused by bacteria entering the tooth through exposure of the pulp cavity. Such exposure was created either by destruction of the protective tooth structure by dental caries or by excessive occlusal attrition (Figs 4 and 5). Antemortem tooth loss Teeth were scored as missing antemortem if the tooth was not present and the corresponding area of the alveolus showed clear evidence of post-loss remodeling. Of 4858 observations for this feature, 229 teeth (4.71%) were lost antemortem. The frequency of antemortem loss was 3.88% in the maxilla and a slightly higher 5.45% in the mandible. Females showed slightly greater tooth loss than males. In the maxilla, antemortem tooth loss was found in 4.25% of males compared to 5.38% of females. In the mandible, loss was found in 5.09% of male teeth compared to 7.51 % of females. In the maxilla, tooth loss per tooth type ranged from only 2.7% in the right lateral incisors to 5.8% in the left third molars. In the mandible, tooth loss per tooth type ranged from a low of 0.7% in left canines to 16.4% in left third molars. In general, the posterior molars and premolars showed a greater frequency of tooth loss than the anterior teeth, reflecting largely their greater vulnerability to dental caries. Detailed information antemortem loss for each tooth type is presented in Table 5.