School of Dentistry, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Calle 61a No. 492a por Av. Itzáes, C.P. 97000, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.
CINVESTAV (Center for Advanced Research and Studies) National Polytechnic Institute, IPN, Mérida Unit, Av. Tecnológico Km. 4.5, Plan de Ayala, 97118, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.
Arch Oral Biol. 2018 Nov;95:202-208. doi: 10.1016/j.archoralbio.2018.08.008. Epub 2018 Aug 19.
The ancient Maya used to practice dental inlays as part of the cultural traditions. Most of those inlays remain in place after more than one thousand years. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the incidence of pulp pathosis associated with ancient Maya dental inlays to assess the impact that such common practice had on the population's oral health.
We scored 193 anterior inlaid teeth from 107 pre-Hispanic Maya dentitions studied at three archaeological storage facilities (Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, Harvard University, Atlas of Guatemala Project). Two hundred eleven untreated frontal teeth of pre-Hispanic Mayan collections were used as controls. We performed macroscopic, radiographic and microscopic analyses to assess the frequency of caries, pulp calcifications, internal root resorption (IRR), and periapical lesions (PALs).
In the inlaid teeth, the frequencies of pulp calcifications, IRR, caries and PALs were 59.8%, 2.2%, 18.5% and 19.2%, respectively. Compared with untreated teeth, inlaid specimens exhibited greater susceptibility to caries, pulp calcifications, IRR and PALs than untreated teeth (pulp calcifications: 44.5%, IRR: 0%, caries: 1.4%, and PAL: 1.9%). Age-at-death did not have any significant influence on susceptibility to pulp calcifications, IRR, caries or PALs.
We noted relatively low pulp irritation and a low frequency of carious infections, IRR and PALs in Mayan inlaid teeth. However, these levels exceeded the frequencies of untreated teeth from the same area and time period. We follow that the cements used by the pre-Hispanic Maya to fix the inlays into their sockets provided excellent sealing characteristics on average.
古代玛雅人曾将牙嵌体作为文化传统的一部分。这些牙嵌体中的大多数在一千多年后仍然完好无损。本文旨在调查与古代玛雅牙嵌体相关的牙髓病变发生率，以评估这种常见做法对该人群口腔健康的影响。
我们对在三个考古存储设施（尤卡坦自治大学、哈佛大学、危地马拉地图集项目）研究的 107 例前西班牙裔玛雅牙列中的 193 颗前牙牙嵌体进行了评分。211 颗未经处理的前西班牙裔玛雅收藏的前牙用作对照。我们进行了宏观、放射学和显微镜分析，以评估龋齿、牙髓钙化、内根吸收（IRR）和根尖病变（PAL）的频率。
在牙嵌体中，牙髓钙化、IRR、龋齿和 PAL 的频率分别为 59.8%、2.2%、18.5%和 19.2%。与未经处理的牙齿相比，牙嵌体标本的龋齿、牙髓钙化、IRR 和 PAL 易感性大于未经处理的牙齿（牙髓钙化：44.5%、IRR：0%、龋齿：1.4%、PAL：1.9%）。死亡年龄对牙髓钙化、IRR、龋齿或 PAL 的易感性没有任何显著影响。
我们注意到在玛雅牙嵌体中，牙髓刺激相对较低，龋齿感染、IRR 和 PAL 的频率也较低。然而，这些水平超过了同一地区和同一时期未经处理的牙齿的频率。我们发现，前西班牙裔玛雅人用来将牙嵌体固定在牙窝中的水泥平均具有出色的密封特性。
