Dental Diseases in Japanese Skeletal Remains

Abstract

Incidence and specificity of dental caries and other dental disorders in later Jomon period were examined as a part of project for studying the reduction of human dentition.Materials used are 89 maxillae and 102 mandibles with permanent or mixed dentition selected from 327 Japanese skulls from later Jomon period.After careful investigation of dental caries and other disorders, consideration was taken into the degree and extent of discrepancy between jaws and teeth, its role to dental caries, and food and eating behaviors as background.As the results, prevalence and rate of dental caries were almost the same to those in Kamakura era and less than in modern age, but its severity was serious, showing higher rate of advanced dental caries and greater number of missing teeth The degree and influence of the discrepancy seemed to be the minimum in this period, but an environmental pollution of mouth caused by slovenly eating behavior and saccharide ingestion might play a leading role as a pathogenetic factor for dental caries.