Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 95. (Budapest 2003)

Évinger, S.: Paleostomatological investigation of the anthropological findings from the Avar period cemeteries of Toponár and Fészerlak

In the case of enamel hypoplasia, we made a separate index, with the name hypoplastic dental index (HDI), to illustrate how representative our skeletal materials are. The ADI gives information only about the percentage of postmortem lost teeth, but inspection of enamel hypoplasias can be hindered by considerable abrasion, premortem tooth loss, or by destroyed tooth crown due to advanced caries or trauma as well. All of these things must be reckoned in the index for the proper characterization of a sample's representativity, because all of them mean loss of information. The method for calculation of the index is: HDI = (number of examinable teeth/ optimal number of teeth*) xlOO Optimal number of teeth was calculated for each person separately. When this number was undeterminable, we gave 28 for the juveniles, while for the adults, we used the mean of the determinable people. (The mean was 31 for both genders.) The general status of dentition can be characterized with dental indices like CE or CRE (HUSZÁR & SCHRANZ 1952). CE shows the joint number of tooth decays and premortem lost teeth per head, while CRE gives information about the joint frequency of carious teeth, premortem lost teeth and radices. For a more accurate description of the general dental status, we made a modified version of the CRE index (advanced CRE), which - besides the frequencies - takes into consideration the progress and "biological value" of these alterations, too: Advanced CRE = (total value of carious lesions + number of radices x 5 + number of premortem lost teeth x 6) / examinable jaw-surface Total value of carious lesions is the sum of values acquired from our scale (C1-C5) for every tooth decay. For example, if we have three carious teeth (one with a C3, one with a C2 and one with a CI in accordance with our scaling system), then total value of carious lesions will be 3 + 2 + 1 = 6. Every radix is worth 5 points, just like the teeth with destroyed tooth crown due to carious lesions. Every premortem tooth loss is worth 6 points, because-in our opinion - this is the most serious condition from those included in the index. Examinable jaw-surface is the sum of the examinable teeth and premortem and postmortem lost teeth (missing jaw parts are not included in the number of postmortem lost teeth). The age index recommended by BRINCH & M0LLER-CHRJSTENSEN (1949) was determined. For the calculations, the average ages (Juvenis 18, Adultus 30, Maturus 50, Senium 65) given by HUSZÁR and SCHRANZ (1952) were used. During evaluation of data, carious and hypoplastic teeth were compared to the number of examinable teeth, while cystae/abscessi and premortem lost teeth were compared to the examinable jaw-surface. The main advantage of the latter method is that this way, pieces of jaws can be taken into the evaluation (SZIKOSSY & BERNÉRT 1996). Data were compared with x

2-test (p = 0.05). Statistical analyses were carried out among the different age groups and sexes within the populations and between the two series. Optimal number of teeth is a value between 28 and 32 per head depending on the number of wisdom-teeth, but in this case it is 12 per head, because only the front teeth were examined from the aspect of enamel hypoplasia in this study.