Geometric morphometric approach to dental health in an 18th- to 19th-century English infirmary

Abstract

This study evaluated correlations between poor dental health and craniomandibular morphology for the Radcliffe Infirmary population buried between 1770 and 1855. The Radcliffe Infirmary is situated in Oxford, 90 km northwest of London, in what used to be a rural area. The original report for this population observed high prevalence rates of dental caries, antemortem tooth loss (AMTL), and periodontal disease. Industrial societies are acknowledged to have highly processed foods that not only are detrimental to dental health but also require less mastication. This softening of diet is suggested to be the leading influence on the modern morphology of the skull. By using two-dimensional geometric morphometrics (GM) and linear measurements of the skull, the Radcliffe population was evaluated for the effects of poor dental health and decreased wear on the masticatory structures. High frequencies of AMTL, periodontal disease, and caries and low amounts of dental wear were observed in this sample population. Caries and AMTL showed weak correlations with skull shape and craniomandibular dimensions according to the results of the morphometric analysis and Kendall's tau. Dental wear correlated with a wide bizygomatic breadth and a long narrow skull shape for the males only. Periodontal disease was the only dental health variable not correlated with shape or size. This study confirmed that the Radcliffe population ate a cariogenic diet and suggests that dental wear and pathology weakly correlates with craniomandibular shape and size. This unpredicted finding may be due to the limitations of two-dimensional shape analysis, a small sample size, and the sampling strategy. Future research is highly encouraged to better understand the consequences of poor dental health for skull morphology.