Biomaterial Database

Anthropology, tooth wear, and occlusion ab origine. 1998

W G Young

Department of Oral Biology & Pathology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

The purpose of this essay is to emphasize that anthropology, the study of man in his environments, is a potent tool for scientific discovery and inspiration in dental science. It attempts to capture flashes of creative anthropological insight which have illuminated studies of tooth wear and occlusion in the past. While it documents contributions, understandings, and misunderstandings from Australian and New Zealand dentists, it is not a hagiography. The real saint of this essay is the Australian aborigine. For when men and women are understood in their environments, much is learned from them which challenges preconceptions of our dental science culture. The essay concludes that new, contemporary Australian culture needs to be studied by anthropological approaches if we are to understand how dental erosion is exacerbating tooth wear and damaging the occlusions of contemporary Australians. Much remains to be discovered about contemporary lifestyles, habits, and diets that lead to dental erosion, the principal cause of contemporary tooth wear in this part of the world.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D009520	New Zealand	A group of islands in the southwest Pacific. Its capital is Wellington. It was discovered by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642 and circumnavigated by Cook in 1769. Colonized in 1840 by the New Zealand Company, it became a British crown colony in 1840 until 1907 when colonial status was terminated. New Zealand is a partly anglicized form of the original Dutch name Nieuw Zeeland, new sea land, possibly with reference to the Dutch province of Zeeland. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p842 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p378)
D002012	Bruxism	A disorder characterized by grinding and clenching of the teeth.	Bruxomania,Teeth Grinding Disorder,Disorder, Teeth Grinding,Grinding Disorder, Teeth,Teeth Grinding Disorders
D003766	Dental Occlusion	The relationship of all the components of the masticatory system in normal function. It has special reference to the position and contact of the maxillary and mandibular teeth for the highest efficiency during the excursive movements of the jaw that are essential for mastication. (From Jablonski, Dictionary of Dentistry, 1992, p556, p472)	Canine Guidance,Occlusal Guidance,Occlusal Plane,Occlusion, Dental,Dental Occlusions,Guidance, Canine,Guidance, Occlusal,Occlusal Guidances,Occlusal Planes,Occlusions, Dental,Plane, Occlusal,Planes, Occlusal
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000884	Anthropology, Cultural	Study of social phenomena which characterize the learned, shared, and transmitted social activities of particular ethnic groups with focus on the causes, consequences, and complexities of human social and cultural variability.	Ethnography,Cultural Anthropology,Material Culture,Culture, Material,Ethnographies,Material Cultures
D001315	Australia	The smallest continent and an independent country, comprising six states and two territories. Its capital is Canberra.	Canton and Enderbury Islands,Christmas Island,Christmas Island (Australia)
D014072	Tooth Abrasion	The pathologic wearing away of the tooth substance by brushing, bruxism, clenching, and other mechanical causes. It is differentiated from TOOTH ATTRITION in that this type of wearing away is the result of tooth-to-tooth contact, as in mastication, occurring only on the occlusal, incisal, and proximal surfaces. It differs also from TOOTH EROSION, the progressive loss of the hard substance of a tooth by chemical processes not involving bacterial action. (From Jablonski, Dictionary of Dentistry, 1992, p2)	Dental Abrasion,Abrasion, Dental,Abrasion, Tooth
D044468	Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/1997/10/30/97-28653/revisions-to-the-standards-for-the-classification-of-federal-data-on-race-and-ethnicity). In the United States it is used for classification of federal government data on race and ethnicity. Race and ethnicity terms are self-identified social construct and may include terms outdated and offensive in MeSH to assist users who are interested in retrieving comprehensive search results for studies such as in longitudinal studies.	Pacific Island Americans,Native Hawaiians,Pacific Islander Americans,Hawaiian, Native,Native Hawaiian,Pacific Island American,Pacific Islander American