Tooth Wear in Two Ancient Populations of the Ukraine

Tooth wear is common in all omnivorous animals and in human archaeological material. It is related to the abrasiveness of diet and to the tribological attrition of teeth of the individuals. Objectives: It was the aim of this study to correlate tooth wear to alveolar crest bone height, root-cementum apposition, gingival recession, and dental caries. Methods: 11 skulls of Chervona Gusarovka, and 14 skulls of Upper Saltov sites from the Khazar Kaganat region in eastern Ukraine with different nutritional behavior with a total number of 265 teeth were studied macromorphologically and micromorphologically regarding tooth wear, caries prevalence and periodontal status. Abrasion grade was determined according to international classification and statistically evaluated using the Chi² test. Periodontal status was measured using the distance between enamel-cementum junction, alveolar crest and gingival attachment respectively (determined by calculus apposition) and compared statistically with the Mann-Whitney-Test. Correlation was calculated with the Pearson-Test. Results: Tooth wear was significantly different (p<0.01) in both populations with higher abrasion in the Saltov specimens. PLM and 3D reconstruction demonstrated massive root-cementum apposition. Low caries prevalence of 4.2% in the Chervona Gusarovka specimens and 1.7% in the Upper Saltov specimens was found. No significant differences were found regarding gingival attachment, gingival recession and alveolar bone height. A positive correlation (p<0.001; R=0.5) was found for tooth wear and alveolar crest distance. Conclusions: The content and the way of preparation of food accelerate tooth wear, contributing to the low prevalence of adult dental caries and to the absence of periodontitis in these ancient populations. Abrasion leads to limited continuous eruption of the teeth increasing the distance between alveolar crest and cemento-enamel junction, but does not result in alveolar bone resorption. Natural functional tooth wear in adults is an important factor contributing to oral health in ancient (as well as contemporary) individuals.