Journal of Dental Research, Vol 65, 935-938, Copyright © 1986 by International & American Associations for Dental Research Online Journals
Dental caries prevalence in early Polynesians from the Hawaiian Islands
H. J. Keene
We examined the skeletal remains of 1338 early Hawaiians (preserved in the
Bishop Museum, Honolulu) to determine total caries and root surface caries
prevalence. Specimens from seven islands were represented in the
collection. Estimation of age at death was made by a combination of dental
developmental staging for younger individuals and occlusal attrition and/or
alveolar bone loss in adults. Museum records were also consulted for age
estimation of adults which was primarily based on osteological criteria.
The material was divided into six age groups. Predentate infants and
edentulous adults were not included. A total of 19,425 teeth was examined.
Caries lesions were observed in 462 individuals (34.5%) and 1895 teeth
(9.8%). Coronal caries lesions in children and adolescents tended to be
small and not particularly destructive of tooth structure. Root surface
lesions in young adults were also small but increased progressively in size
in the older groups, resulting in pulp exposure and coronal amputation.
Although coronal caries was apparently not a significant dental health
problem in children and young adults (compared with contemporary
Hawaiians), root surface caries was an increasingly important source of
tooth morbidity and tooth mortality in the older population groups. This
age-related caries pattern was similar for all of the islands.
