Features of the dental status of the Nogais who lived on the territory of Ukraine in the 15th century

Abstract

The condition of teeth in ancient populations living on the territory of Ukraine has been little studied. The aim of the work is to study the dental status of the 15th century Nogais, and to carry out a comparative analysis of the data obtained with the state of the dento-jaw system of medieval populations that lived on the territory of modern Ukraine in the 9th – early 15th centuries. The object of the study was 48 Nogai skeletons (main group) and 118 representatives of medieval cultures (control group). The research method was a method for analyzing the skeletal tissue of ancient people, developed by the authors. The prevalence and intensity of caries, the prevalence of dento-jaw anomalies, dental calculus and periodontal diseases were studied. Statistical analysis was performed using the Pearson χ2 test. It was found that the prevalence of dental caries in the main group is lower than in the control group (18.75 % and 37.28 % respectively, p<0.05). It was also found that this indicator significantly differed in men of both groups (p<0.05), while in women it did not differ (p>0.1). It was found that in the main group, compared with the control group, the frequency of primary adentia was higher (16.67 % and 6.68 % respectively, p<0.05), but the prevalence of anomalies in the position of individual teeth and occlusion was lower (4.17 % and 21.18 % respectively, p<0.05,). It was found that the prevalence of dental calculus in the main group is two times higher than in the control group (89.50 % and 41.0 % respectively, p<0.0001). Also, 15.0 % of Nogai men showed a decrease in the height of the alveolar process of the jaws, which is characteristic of periodontitis; in women, such changes were not found due to the low average age of survival. Thus, the 15th century Nogai population had a lower prevalence of caries and dento-maxillary anomalies than the medieval populations that lived on the territory of modern Ukraine in the 9th – early 15th centuries.