Dental health and dentistry in ancient Egypt: Possible evidence for dental filling and extraction at Deir el-Medina.

OBJECTIVE

This study combines caries and antemortem tooth loss rates with possible dental interventions and medical texts to evaluate whether dentistry was practiced in Pharaonic Egypt.

MATERIALS

The study includes 32 mandibles and 44 maxillae consisting of 485 teeth and 1052 tooth sockets. It includes 14 Egyptian texts on dental treatments.

METHODS

Human remains were observed macroscopically for carious lesions and antemortem tooth loss. Egyptian texts were translated from photographs.

RESULTS

11 % of teeth were lost antemortem and 42 % of maxillae and mandibles had one or more teeth lost antemortem. One possible dental extraction is presented. Carious lesions were present in 10 % of teeth and 39 % of mandibles and maxillae. One example of a possible dental filling is presented. Two treatments from Papyrus Ebers discuss treatments to fill a tooth.

CONCLUSION

AMTL and carious lesions were common in this sample, especially in older adults. The possible presence of a dental extraction and a dental filling in combination with textual references to dental fillings indicate dental interventions were sometimes used to manage dental health in Egypt.

SIGNIFICANCE

This study is the earliest evidence in Egypt for a dental filling in human remains. It also offers an interdisciplinary analysis of dental treatments that indicates, contrary to earlier publications, that dental interventions were practiced in Egypt during the New Kingdom.

LIMITATIONS

The poor dental health of many Egyptian populations makes it impossible to assess how frequently Egyptians used dental interventions.

FURTHER RESEARCH

Future analysis of the dental filling could help determine its composition.