Dental pathology and diet : second thoughts

Dietary regimes have a strong bearing on dental pathology rates. In this paper we use data from large samples of Portuguese Mesolithic and Neolithic dentitions to show that caries rates are not, however, easy to establish. We demonstrate that while comparable methods and samples are obviously necessary, there are more important considerations which have not been discussed in the literature. Accurate observation of different types of caries will be affected by both the type of burial and depositional conditions. Furthermore, it is necessary to take into consideration factors which may bias the available sample, e.g., the demography of the population and differential preservation of tooth classes and of specific age categories. In sum, not only burial practices, but mortality rates, the nature of the burial deposits, the methods of excavation and curation, and the techniques of observing and recording caries, will all introduce variations into caries rates, as well as the immediate biological determinants of oral health. We conclude that it may be impossible to obtain accurate dental pathology rates and that variations in pathology cannot be attributed to diet alone.