Increased dental fluctuating asymmetry is associated with active skeletal lesions, but not mortality hazards in the precontact Southwest United States.

OBJECTIVE

This study examines whether individuals with higher dental fluctuating asymmetry (DFA) are frailer than those with lower DFA, by examining whether increased DFA is associated with skeletal lesion formation.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

150 individuals with permanent teeth and 64 individuals with deciduous teeth. All individuals are Ancestral Puebloans from archaeological sites in modern-day New Mexico. We estimate DFA in three ways: (a) deciduous DFA only, (b) permanent DFA only, and (c) a composite of permanent and deciduous DFA. We analyzed DFA alongside lesion status for cribra orbitalia (CO) and porotic hyperostosis (PH), as well as the presence/absence of enamel hypoplasia (EH). All stress indicators were further analyzed for their impact on mortality hazards.

RESULTS

We find that individuals with active CO and PH lesions have increased DFA, while those with healed lesions have lower DFA. We found no relationship between EH and DFA. Further, DFA alone does not predict individual mortality but CO does.

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals with increased DFA are frailer and therefore, less capable of buffering themselves against perturbations to their health than those with lower DFA. All results indicate that individuals in this study with lower DFA were more successful in buffering themselves against random environmental impacts during childhood. While DFA alone does not predict mortality hazard, its relationship to lesion status (lower DFA in individuals with healed lesions) indicates that it would be a valuable addition to studies of health and stress.