Dental Disease and Dietary Pattern in the Early Medieval Population from Bijelo Brdo - East Slavonia, Croatia

摘要

The purpose of this study was first to analyse dental disease in the early medieval population from Bijelo Brdo in East Slavonia, Croatia, and second to determine the dietary pattern with regard to dental diseases. Occlusal surface wear, caries and antemortem tooth loss were studied in the pemanent dentition of 81 skulls from an early medieval cemetery (10 - 11th century) from Bijelo Brdo. After cleaning, the material was stored in Archeological Museum in Zagreb. A total of 979 permanent teeth were examined. The number of carious teeth and number of root surfaces involved in caries were recorded for computer analysis. Examined teeth showed moderate occlusal surface wear. The overall caries prevalence was 9.5% of the present teeth. The teeth attacked by caries were chiefly molars, followed by premolars, with a low rate of attack in canines and incisors. A primitive pattern of caries was recorded, whereby most cavities ocurred in the interdental space, near the cemento-enamel junction. Skeletal root caries index (SRCI) was 0.9. Ante-mortem tooth loss was 6.7%. Average number of teeth lost before death was 1.22. The first molar was the most frequently lost tooth. Moderate occlusal surface wear, low SRCI and a pattern of caries involving approximal rather than occlusal surface suggest that consumed food was no so coarse and contained much soluble material., that its debris could enter the approximal area close to the contact point. These data are consistent with archeological and historical data wich characterize the Bijelo Brdo population as intensely agricultural with a high comsumption of cereals.