Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria.
Center for Forensic Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
PLoS One. 2023 Feb 7;18(2):e0280769. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280769. eCollection 2023.
The physical properties of diet and oral health throughout childhood play an important role in the development of human dentition, and differed greatly before the industrial revolution. In this study we examined dental wear and oral pathology in a sample of children from the Early Bronze-Age to investigate the physical and mechanical properties of childhood diet and related oral health. We explore cross-sectional age and sex-based variation of children in the sample. The analysis was carried out on the dentitions of 75 children, 978 teeth, excavated from the Early Bronze-Age cemetery Franzhausen I in Lower Austria. Presence of dental caries and calculus was recorded. Dental wear was measured using dentine exposure, occlusal topography, and dental microwear texture analysis. Sex determination was carried out using amelogenin peptide analysis. Caries were found in only 4 individuals (crude prevalence rate-5%, 95% CI 1% to 13%), affecting only 5 teeth (true prevalence rate-less than 1%). Dentine exposure was observed in over 70% of deciduous molars and dental wear measurements indicate a comparatively strong dental wear accumulation especially, among younger children, when compared to modern-day and later pre-industrial populations. Microwear textures presented a high complexity (Asfc > 2)/low anisotropy (epLsar < 1) profile, especially in older children. Differences between male and female children were not generally significant but increased dentine exposure was observed in the lower molars of younger female children. Our results suggest that the Early Bronze-Age children at Franzhausen I consumed a non-cariogenic diet, more abrasive and inclusive of harder/polyhedral foodstuffs than present-day children and some later Medieval children. Differences in dental wear accumulation were observed between children within the population, but with minimal variation between the sexes mostly occurring among younger children.
儿童时期的饮食和口腔健康的物理特性在人类牙齿发育中起着重要作用，而且在工业革命之前有很大的不同。在这项研究中，我们检查了来自青铜时代早期的儿童样本中的牙齿磨损和口腔病理学，以研究儿童时期饮食的物理和机械特性及其相关的口腔健康。我们探索了样本中儿童的横断面年龄和性别差异。分析是在奥地利下奥地利州弗兰兹豪森 I 早期青铜时代墓地出土的 75 名儿童的 978 颗牙齿上进行的。记录了龋齿和牙石的存在情况。使用牙本质暴露、咬合面形态和牙齿微观磨损纹理分析来测量牙齿磨损。使用 amelogenin 肽分析进行性别确定。只有 4 个人（粗患病率为 5%，95%CI 为 1%至 13%）发现有龋齿，只有 5 颗牙齿（真实患病率小于 1%）受到影响。在超过 70%的乳牙中观察到牙本质暴露，而且牙齿磨损测量表明，特别是在年幼的儿童中，与现代和后来的工业化前人群相比，积累了相对较强的牙齿磨损。微观磨损纹理呈现出高复杂性（Asfc > 2）/低各向异性（epLsar < 1）的特征，尤其是在年龄较大的儿童中。男性和女性儿童之间的差异一般不显著，但在年龄较小的女性儿童的下磨牙中观察到更多的牙本质暴露。我们的结果表明，弗兰兹豪森 I 的青铜时代早期儿童食用的是非致龋饮食，与现代儿童和一些后来的中世纪儿童相比，饮食更具磨蚀性，包含更多的硬/多面体形食物。在人群中，儿童之间的牙齿磨损积累存在差异，但在大多数情况下，这种差异发生在年龄较小的儿童中，且主要发生在男性和女性儿童之间。
