Dental caries prevalence by sex inprehistory: magnitude and meaning

摘要

The focus of this chapter is to determine if there is a significant relation-ship between sex and oral disease in human prehistory.1 The idea that dentalcaries prevalence may be etiologically complex and multifactorial in natureis not new (Mandel, 1979). Nevertheless, significant advances in understand-ing the mechanisms of cariogenesis continue (Featherstone, 1987, 2000), andthe epidemiological study of dental caries continues to broaden, embracinggeographically and culturally more diverse populations. Less widely appre-ciated is the frequently reported finding that females display worse dentalhealth than males, especially in epidemiological studies of living populations(Haugejorden, 1996). While some anthropologists are well aware of the ten-dency for women to exhibit worse dental health than men (Larsen,1998; Walkerand Hewlett, 1990), a systematic global survey of sex differences in dentalpathology in prehistory has not been conducted. The present meta-analysistested for a gender bias in oral health by gathering, critically evaluating, andstatistically summarizing data on sex differences in dental caries for a globalsample of early historic and prehistoric skeletal series.