title: [Dental caries found in the human skull of Tang dynasty excavated fron Xi'an].
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthodontics, College of Stomatology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Jin-ling
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Hai-tao
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Dai-yun
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: 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