| Oral diseases, which are one of the human diseases, are very popular inhuman society. In the studies of ancient human diseases, it is important todiagnosis and analysis the oral diseases on the skulls and teeth which areunearthed from the archaeological excavations. Because they are not only theimportant materials to investigate the causes and development of modern oraldiseases, but also the vital clues to explore the inhabitants lifestyle, diet, healthand living environment of ancient people.In2007,594tombs of the Warring States Period and Qin Dynasty, whichwere2200years ago, were discovered in Xinfeng village of Xi’an LintongDistrict. It is the largest number of graves of the Warring States Period and QinDynasty, which were first discovered in Guanzhong region. In2009,83tombsof the same period were unearthed in Wanli village of Lintong District. It isproved that these tombs were family graves of civilians. From1997to2001, Tombs and ash pits, which had the history of4000years, were excavated inLongshan sites in Shangzhou, Shaanxi Province. To investigate the oral diseasesof ancient people, including malocclusion, tooth attrition, caries, dentalnon-caries disease and periodontal disease, the purpose is to understand theoccurrence, development and evolution of oral diseases, and therefore toaccumulate the detail information of the evolution of oral diseases.This study used the method of cross-sectional study of descriptiveepidemiology.86skulls of2200years ago were collected from graves in Xi’an, andthe genders of samples were identified by School of Cultural Heritage of theNorthwest University. According to “Anthropometric Handbook”, the samples weredivided into four groups, which were below23-year-old age group,24to35agegroup,36to55age group and above56-year-old age group. The prevalence of oraldiseases in ancient people, including malocclusion, tooth attrition, caries, dentalnon-caries disease and periodontal disease, were examined and analyzed bystatistics.In the aspect of malocclusion, crowding of teeth was the most prevalent type ofdeformity in84samples (44.05%). The second common deformity was sparsetooth-scattered dentition (16.67%). It showed that mesioclination was very commonin dislocation of individual teeth. It showed that different direction of tilt anddislocation were also occurred, including180-degree turnover of two premolars.The prevalence of supernumerary tooth, congenital missing teeth, microdontia andinvaginated lingual fossa were1.19%,33.33%,3.57%and8.33%. In36samples,the constitution of Angle’s Classification were class Ⅲ malocclusion (42.42%),class Ⅰ malocclusion (36.36%) and class Ⅱ malocclusion (21.21%).In the aspect of tooth attrition, the average degree in all1165teeth was2.10.The proportions of wear degree were score2(45.24%), score3(28.15%), score 1(20.00%), score4(3.69%) and score0(2.92%). Besides the most seriousattrition in the first molar, the attrition in the anterior teeth was heavier than inthe posterior teeth. The attrition in symmetrical tooth position between themaxilla and the mandible had no significant difference (p>0.05). The attrition inthe anterior teeth was heavier than in the posterior teeth in each age group. Forthe attrition in teeth with same position, there was no significant difference inthe central incisor among age groups (P>0.05), whereas significant differenceswere founded in other position of tooth (P<0.05). With the increase of age, thedegree of tooth wear gradually increased.In the aspect of caries and dental non-caries disease, the total prevalence ofcaries in83samples was69.88%, the ratio of caries was20.10%in1199teeth,and the DMFT was2.90. With the increase of age, the prevalence of caries, theratio of caries and the DMFT gradually increased. For the distribution of caries,caries less than1/2dental crown was the most common type (65.98%). Asignificant difference of distribution was founded among age groups (P<0.05).The most frequently recorded caries was the deep caries which have perforationof pulp chamber (41.91%), followed by the enamel caries (29.46%), thesuperficial caries (17.84%) and the deep caries (16.60%). The prevalence ofperiapical disease was7.84%, there was obvious difference in prevalence ofperiapical disease among age groups. There was a significant difference ofcaries numbers between various positions of tooth (P<0.05). It showed that theposterior tooth were liable to getting caries. For the distribution of caries cavityin the tooth surface, the most part was root caries which was37.40%of totalcaries, and then proximal dental caries which was33.94%. There was nosignificant difference in the ratio of caries between male and female.Additionally, there were dental non-caries diseases founded in these samples, such as dental fluorosis (2.33%), enamel hypoplasia (11.63%), invaginatedlingual fossa (8.14%), enamel pearl (3.49%), abnormal root number (3.49%),hypercementosis (3.49%) and crown-root fracture (1.16%).In the aspect of periodontal disease, the prevalence was83.53%in85samples.82.96%of the total1174teeth were suffered from periodontal diseases.According to number of teeth, the prevalence of periodontal diseases in thedifferent gender had a significant difference (P <0.05), the ratio of teeth withperiodontal diseases in male was slightly higher than in female. With the increaseof age, the prevalence of periodontal disease, which was gradually increased, hada significant difference among age groups (P<0.05). For the distribution ofperiodontal disease, the highest prevalence was in the first molar (89.94%) and thelowest proportion was in the third molar (61.06%). These were significantdifferences in prevalence of periodontal disease in the central incisor and thelateral incisor, both in maxilla and mandible (P<0.05). The highest of dentalcalculus index was recorded in the first molar (1.05), followed by the secondmolar (0.96). A significant difference of dental calculus was founded betweendifferent tooth position in maxilla and mandible (P<0.05), whereas there was noobvious difference between same tooth position both in maxilla and mandible(P>0.05).In the samples of4000years ago,3cases of malocclusion, which werefounded in6skulls, were Angle’s class I malocclusion. The prevalence of teethdislocation, supernumerary teeth and malformed teeth were7.70%,1.10%and1.10%. The most serious attrition was founded at the first molar, followed by theanterior teeth, and the least attrition existed in the third molar. The prevalence ofcaries in6skulls was83.33%. The ratio of caries was12.09%. The DMFT was1.83. There were different kinds of caries, such as the enamel caries (6.59%), superficial caries (4.40%) and deep caries (1.10%). There was no deep carieswhich have perforation of pulp chamber founded. The most common caries wereroot caries and proximal dental caries (43.75%), followed by occlusal surfaceand buccal labial surface (6.25%). The prevalence of periodontal disease was83.33%. The ratio of teeth with periodontal disease was85.71%. The molar areawas most susceptible to periodontal disease, followed by the premolar area andthe anterior region. The first molar was suffered from the most serious dentalcalculus. The dental calculus were more serious in the mandible than in themaxilla.This study involved diagnoses of oral diseases in the people of2200and4000years ago, including malocclusion, tooth attrition, caries, dental non-cariesdisease and periodontal disease. The oral diseases that mentioned above werealso analyzed. Thus there were some meaningful results which might fill theblank in the investigation of the evolution of oral diseases in China2200yearsand4000years ago. |
PDF Full Text Request