[Dental caries found in the human skull of Tang dynasty excavated fron Xi'an].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the status of dental caries in the human of Tang dynasty.


METHODS
All teeth in 62 human skulls of Tang dynasty excavated from the Chang'an county in Xi'an city were examined and analyzed by statistics. The difference of prevalence in different group including age, sex and tooth position was tested with Chi-square test.


RESULTS
The prevalence of dental caries was 62.9%. And there were 92 caries teeth, which was 14.6% of the whole teeth. The root caries (33.3%) was more than the occlusal caries (28.7%). The most frequent recorded caries were the third molar, followed by the second molar, then the first molar. There was no significant difference between male and female.


CONCLUSIONS
The dental caries was popular in human of Tang dynasty, but the prevalence lowers than the modern people. And with the human evolution and the improvement of the social productivity, the prevalence of dental caries was gradually ascending.
Meng
Yong
Y
Department of Orthodontics, College of Stomatology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China.
Shao
Jin-ling
JL
Li
Hai-tao
HT
Xiao
Dan
D
Liu
Dai-yun
DY
D000328:Adult; D001106:Archaeology; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence