Bonsall L
University of Edinburgh, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, Mid Lothian EH8 9AG, United Kingdom.
Arch Oral Biol. 2014 Dec;59(12):1279-300. doi: 10.1016/j.archoralbio.2014.07.019. Epub 2014 Aug 4.
Textual sources from the Roman period point to the existence of dietary differences between the sexes. The aim of this study was to assess the palaeopathological evidence for such gender differences in dietary habits in Roman Britain by comparing the oral health of sexed individuals from two late Romano-British sites (Ancaster, Lincolnshire, and Winchester, Hampshire, England).
Eighty-seven females (1243 teeth and 1950 sockets) and 112 males (1984 teeth and 2903 sockets) were examined for the presence of five dento-alveolar conditions, namely caries, calculus, periapical lesions, periodontal disease, and antemortem tooth loss. The frequency of each condition was calculated at the per individual and per tooth/socket level, and the results were compared between the sexes using Fisher's exact tests.
Caries and antemortem tooth loss were slightly more common among women, but differences between the sexes were generally not significant. Males experienced higher rates of calculus and periodontal disease. There were no sex differences in the frequency of periapical lesions.
Comparable rates of caries, periapical lesions and antemortem tooth loss in females and males indicate broad similarity in the diets of men and women. The greater levels of calculus and periodontal disease in males might point to some dietary differences, but could also be explained by non-dietary factors. Overall, the findings suggest that significant gender differences in diet, described in some contemporaneous textual sources, were not widely observed in Roman Britain.
罗马时期的文献资料表明男女在饮食上存在差异。本研究的目的是通过比较来自两个罗马晚期英国遗址（英国林肯郡的安卡斯特和汉普郡的温彻斯特）不同性别的个体的口腔健康状况，评估罗马不列颠时期饮食习惯中这种性别差异的古病理学证据。
对87名女性（1243颗牙齿和1950个牙槽）和112名男性（1984颗牙齿和2903个牙槽）进行检查，以确定是否存在五种牙槽疾病，即龋齿、牙结石、根尖周病变、牙周病和生前牙齿脱落。计算每种疾病在个体以及每颗牙齿/牙槽水平上的发生频率，并使用Fisher精确检验比较两性之间的结果。
龋齿和生前牙齿脱落在女性中略为常见，但两性之间的差异通常不显著。男性患牙结石和牙周病的比例更高。根尖周病变的发生频率没有性别差异。
男性和女性在龋齿、根尖周病变和生前牙齿脱落方面的发生率相当，这表明男性和女性的饮食大致相似。男性中牙结石和牙周病的发生率较高可能表明存在一些饮食差异，但也可能由非饮食因素解释。总体而言，研究结果表明，一些同时期文献中描述的饮食方面显著的性别差异在罗马不列颠并没有广泛观察到。
