A Study of Dental Caries from Çatak, Van: Early Iron Age Skeletons

Abstract

Dental health conditions of Anatolian Early Iron Age nomads and small-scale agricultural societies are insufficiently known. Furthermore, research about dental health from this time period is considerably less available from Eastern Anatolian cities, like Van. In this study, we report the prevalence of different types of dental caries observed in the Early Iron Age remains from a tomb located in Çatak, Van. Material uncovered from the tomb included 114 permanent teeth belonging to 11 different adult individuals. The number of adult individuals displaying dental caries constituted approximately 7.01% of the entire collection. The prevalence of the dental caries in Çatak tomb resembled rates announced in the previous studies from the area, however we cannot rule out the minimal sample size of our collection. Most of the lesions were observed in the neck (cemento-enamel junction) and contact (approximal caries) surfaces of the teeth. This presents a possible connection with the dietary habits of the studied population as a result of the food debris that are stuck between teeth and accumulate in the necks of teeth. Signs of root caries lesions were not encountered in any of the teeth with an alveolar bone, though, one specimen was observed with an infection in the alveolar bone. Assessing the distribution type and frequency of dental caries in permanent dentition was not possible due to the minimal sample size of both male and female individuals. In this study, the incidence of dental caries and caries types were compared with the data of Eastern Anatolia Early Iron Age.