title: The prevalence and distribution of dental caries in four early medieval non-adult populations of different socioeconomic status from Central Europe.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the study was to map the dental health status in non-adult individuals and to verify whether and how the existence of caries in the non-adult age group is associated with the different socio-economic status of early medieval populations.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied the dental remains from the acropolis of the Mikulčice settlement agglomeration, where members of the higher social classes were buried, and from the Mikulčice hinterland. Overall, we evaluated 2544 teeth/3714 alveoli of deciduous dentition and 1938 teeth/2128 alveoli of permanent dentition. We determined the number of individuals with dental caries (i.e., caries frequency index, F-CE) and the proportion of teeth/alveoli with caries/ante-mortem tooth loss (i.e., caries intensity index, I-CE).
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found no statistical significant difference in the F-CE values between the Mikulčice hinterland and the acropolis. In addition, we found no statistically significant difference in the proportion of teeth with carious lesions (I-CE) either in the case of deciduous dentition or in the case of permanent dentition between the hinterland and the acropolis. In the case of permanent dentition, the statistically significant highest proportion of carious lesions (I-CE) was found in Mikulčice I (p ≤ 0.05). We confirmed an increase in the rate of caries with age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The level of caries at all of the studied medieval locations was very low. We presume that lifestyle and the associated dietary habits and hygienic practices of the individuals or population groups had a greater influence on dental caries than did the socio-economic status of these individuals.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Letenská 4, 118 01 Prague 1, Czech Republic. Electronic address: stranska@arup.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stránská
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, National Museum, Václavské náměstí 68, 115 79 Prague 1, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Velemínský
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská 147, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lumír
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Poláček
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000266:history*; D019229:Dentition, Permanent; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012923:Social Class / Q000266:history*; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bioarchaeology; Dental caries; Early medieval population; Great Moravia; Non-adult individuals; Socio-economic status