Dental caries prevalence of medieval Korean people

Han, Sun Sook; Baek, Kyung-won; Shin, Myung Ho; Kim, Jaehyup; Oh, Chang Seok; Lee, Sang Jun; Shin, Dong Hoon

doi:10.1016/j.archoralbio.2010.04.004

« Previous Next »Archives of Oral Biology
Volume 55, Issue 7 , Pages 535-540, July 2010

Dental caries prevalence of medieval Korean people

Sun Sook Han
- Dept of Anatomy, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28, Yongon-dong, Chongno-Gu, Seoul 110-799, South Korea
- Dept of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, 28, Yongon-dong, Chongno-Gu, Seoul 110-799, South Korea
Kyung-won Baek
- Dept of Dentisty, Jeju National University Hospital, Jeju National University College of Medicine, Jeju-do 690-716, South Korea
Myung Ho Shin
- Dept of History, Pukyung National University, Pusan 608-737, South Korea
Jaehyup Kim
- Dept of Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
Chang Seok Oh
- Dept of Anatomy, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28, Yongon-dong, Chongno-Gu, Seoul 110-799, South Korea
- Lab of Anthropology and Paleopathology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28, Yongon-dong, Chongno-Gu, Seoul 110-799, South Korea
Sang Jun Lee
- Dept of Anatomy, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28, Yongon-dong, Chongno-Gu, Seoul 110-799, South Korea
- Lab of Anthropology and Paleopathology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28, Yongon-dong, Chongno-Gu, Seoul 110-799, South Korea
Dong Hoon Shin
- Dept of Anatomy, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28, Yongon-dong, Chongno-Gu, Seoul 110-799, South Korea
- Lab of Anthropology and Paleopathology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28, Yongon-dong, Chongno-Gu, Seoul 110-799, South Korea
- Corresponding author at: Institute of Forensic Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea. Tel.: +82 2 740 8203; fax: +82 2 754 9528.

Accepted 9 April 2010.

Abstract

Objectives

Prevalence and distribution of dental caries in medieval Korean society were evaluated.

Materials and methods

Two thousand and nine hundred teeth samples of 126 individuals collected from 16th to 18th century Korean tombs.

Results

Preservation status of sample was good. The prevalence of ante- and postmortem tooth loss was 4.4% and 14.2%, respectively. The total caries prevalence was 3.9%. The tooth surface most frequently affected by dental caries was occlusal (4.5%), followed by approximal (2.1%), buccal (1.5%), and lingual (1.1%) surfaces.

Discussion

The prevalence of dental caries in Joseon Dynasty skeleton collection was lower than have been found in other collections of similar chronology. The low consumption of refined sugar in medieval Korean society might be a possible explanation, though the technical limitations inherent in such comparison studies preclude definitive conclusions.

Keywords: Dental caries, Refined sugar, Korea, Joseon Dynasty, Medieval