The Influence of Teeth, Diet, and Habits on the Human Face

THE INFLUENCE OF TEETH, DIET, AND HABITS ON THE HUMAN FACE

D.M. DAVIES

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Dental Caries

Chapter 1: THE FACIAL TRAITS OF PRIMITIVE AND CIVILIZED PEOPLES COMPARED: Including notes on facial links between ancient and modern primitive peoples

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Facial links between Ancient and Modern Primitive Peoples

Chapter 2: THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIMITIVE AND MODERN DIETS

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Chapter 3: THE INFLUENCES OF A MEAT AND VEGETABLE TYPE DIET COMPARED

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Chapter 4: FACIAL CHANGES THROUGH DIET CHANGES

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Chapter 5: TOOTH DISEASES IN PRIMITIVE TRIBES

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Caries

Periodontal Disease—Past and Present Compared

Chapter 6: RACIAL LINKS TRACED THROUGH THE STUDY OF TEETH

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Chapter 7: COMPARISONS BETWEEN THE TEETH OF THE TRIBES STUDIED

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Attrition in the Races

Some of the Abnormalities Found in the Tribes Studied

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Supernumeraries

Taurodontism

Chapter 8: THE INFLUENCE OF THE SEA ON DENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH

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Caries: Information from the Tables on the Coastal and Inland Groups

Methods of Research

Chapter 9: SOME UNUSUAL CUSTOMS TO DO WITH THE TEETH

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The Influence of Habits upon Teeth

Chapter 10: CONCLUSIONS

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Chapter 11: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Afghans

American Indians

Australian Aborigines

Chines

Congo Pygmies

Eskimos

Hottentots

Indians (Asiatic)

Land Dyaks (Klemantans)

Laplanders

Malays (not Chinese)

Maoris

Masai

Melanesians

New Guineans

Pakistan—North West India

Polynesians

Sea Dyaks

South American Tribes

Tibetans

Zulus (South African Negroes)

Chapter 12: METHODS USED IN THE STUDY

Publisher Summary

APPENDIX

REFERENCES

GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN THE TEXT

INDEX

Copyright

First Published 1972

© D. M. Davies 1972

ISBN 433 07160 5

Made in Great Britain at the Pitman Press, Bath

PREFACE

DURING the past few decades there have been many radical changes in the diet of ‘civilized’ man, and not all of them to his advantage. Dental health has deteriorated rapidly and facial degeneration has also become much more common. It seemed that it would be of interest, and perhaps of value, to see how primitive tribes fared on a ‘natural’ diet.

But this is not the only objective of the book. There has been no previous study of the relationship of diets and habits and their influence upon the human face, a subject which should be of interest to many serious students of human biology, anthropology, psychology, anatomy, zoology, evolution and nutrition. For facial features are not entirely hereditary, environment, and particularly social environment, plays its important part.

To take things a stage further is to see how the features and dental health of primitive tribes are influenced, indeed it would not be too strong to say formed, by their specialized, primitive diets. And it is this that forms the central theme of this work, the teeth and jaws of savage man, the diseases and abnormalities that are found in them. In many cases following peoples to the sad, logical conclusions of degenerate, malformed features and diseased teeth, that follows upon the introduction and adoption of a ‘civilized’, unsuitable diet.

In the course of research for this work, the skulls of twenty different tribes from widely scattered parts of the world were studied. Owing to the difficulty of obtaining living specimens the material used came principally from the British Museum’s collection of fourteen thousand specimens; four hundred and fifty were selected for use in the study that will be described in the following pages. The main criteria for the selection of these specimens was as follows:

(1) They were selected from regions of the world where, up to the time of collection, there had been no contact with civilization;

(2) The data indicated that they were collected during the nineteenth century—at least no later.

Therefore, in the work on these specimens, we are studying original man; before his way of life had been altered by contact with civilization.

Observations have also been made in respect to the customs and habits (e.g. tooth filing and betel nut chewing), of the tribes concerned to show their effects, as well as the effects of natural disease.

Teeth form a particularly valuable subject for study to those interested in man as they are the most indestructible part of the body, and they can help to provide records of age, health, racial links, customs, diet, and eating habits for many years after the person who animated them is dead.

Finally, all scientific men agree that in the teeth we have one of the best forms of evidence of evolutionary relationship.

D.M.D.,     London

January 1972

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THIS study and research was undertaken partly during the tenure of a Medical Research Council Grant, and therefore I am greatly indebted to them for their financial support.

The work was carried out in two centres, The British Museum of Natural History and University College Hospital Dental School.

I am grateful to the authorities at The British Museum of Natural History for access to specimens, and for providing the necessary facilities for examining them. The initial selection, measurements, and observations were carried out there. The officers there who were particularly helpful were Dr. K. P. Oakley, the Deputy Keeper and Head of the Sub-Department of Anthropology; Mr. Don Brothwell, and Miss Rosemary Powers.

Amongst colleagues at University College Hospital Dental School, I should like to give grateful thanks to Professor A. S. Prophet, the Director of Dental Studies, and to Dr. D. C. A. Picton, the Professor in Experimental and Preventive Dentistry, for their guidance, encouragement and inspiration.

Also my thanks to Mr. A. G. Alexander, for his observations on the specimens, which gave me several leads, and for comparing the measurements with the Russell Index.

On the technical side, my thanks to Mr. Rogers and his successor, Mr. Day, of the Photographic Department, for their superb photographs of the material, and their patience and eagerness to help in the project, and to Miss Mildred Hughes, the Senior Radiographer in the Dental Hospital, for her assistance and advice with the radiographical side of the work, and Madeline Bentley for the illustrations.

Miss S. Devine of the Medical Research Council Computer Service gave great help with the statistics and the computer programming.

Finally, I wish to express my appreciation and thanks to the many University College Hospital Dental School staff and friends, who have encouraged me in the work, and also given of their time and co-operation in order that this work could be completed. Also to friends at University College who gave of their time when I required information on special subjects not covered in the University College Hospital Dental School.

I should also like to express my thanks to Miss Elizabeth Clay for enabling me to complete the work by helping me with the final editing, typing, etc., and to the other secretarial assistants who undertook the laborious task of typing the Tables.

D.M.D.

September 1971

INTRODUCTION

THE tooth is made up of four structures. The first is the pulp, within which carries blood vessels and nerves. This structure is surrounded in both the root and crown by the dentine or tooth bone which is nourished from within. The dentine of the root is covered by cementum which receives nourishment from the membrane which attaches the root to the jaw bone. The dentine of the crown or exposed part of the tooth is covered with enamel. Tooth decay proceeds slowly through the enamel and often rapidly in the dentine, always following the minute channels towards the pulp, which may become infected before the decay actually reaches the pulp to expose it; nearly always the decay infects the pulp when it destroys the dentine covering it. When a tooth has a deep cavity of decay, the decalcified dentine has about the density of rotten wood. With an adequate improvement in nutrition, tooth decay will generally be checked provided two conditions are present: in the first place, there must be enough improvement in the quality of the saliva; and in the second, the saliva must have free access to the cavity. Of course, if the decay is removed and a filling placed in the cavity, the bacteria will be mechanically shut out. One of the most severe tests of a nutritional programme, accordingly, is the test of its power to check tooth decay completely, even without fillings. There are, however, two further tests of the sufficiency of improvement of the chemical content of the saliva. If it has been sufficiently improved, bacterial growth will not only be inhibited, but the leathery decayed dentine will become mineralized from the saliva by a process similar to petrification.

The work that is described in the following pages was carried out in the Dental Department of the University College Hospital Medical School and in the Sub-Department of Anthropology at the British Museum of Natural History, Cromwell Road, South Kensington.

Occasional visits were made as well to the Duckworth Laboratory at the Downing Street Site at Cambridge and the Zoology Department at Oxford, and the Royal College of Surgeons when it became necessary to study skulls of the types not available at the British Museum.

Before the study began it was feared that there would be too little material available with sufficient teeth present to yield much information. However, out of the fourteen thousand or so specimens that are housed in the British Museum, there were plenty with teeth in situ. In fact perfect dentitions were quite common amongst the primitive tribes studied. Loss of teeth during life was much more common among the more civilized groups of people and was especially common in the skulls from the Scandinavian countries. These were mainly represented by skulls from the Seamen’s Hospital, that was originally at Greenwich, and most of them dated from the period 1850–1900.

Early in 1963 the writer returned from doing fieldwork in Physical Anthropology in New Guinea and South East Asia and started to do some reconstruction, measurements of skulls, and anatomical work.

Many of the skulls and jaws studied had been damaged by bombing during the war, especially those in the R.C.S. but others were new additions that had arrived in a damaged state. Dental disease was found to be quite common but there were differences in incidence and in the type of abnormality between the different races. For instance, periodontal disease was common amongst the Asian Indians, and the third molars were often missing from the Chinese skulls. Impacted molars also occurred in the Chinese, and in the aborigines of Australia.

While working in the Highlands of New Guinea, in the Central Region, the writer noticed that periodontal disease appeared quite frequently among the tribal people. When it occurred after the age of thirty-five the writer had the impression that it had an influence on the general health and the well-being of the individual, who appeared less robust than others without the disease.

The study was carried out so as to include the general observations as well as the anatomical ones. This included signs that might indicate diseases such as periodontal disease. The incidence of caries was also studied, and records were made of attrition, malocclusion, hypoplasia, abscess cavities, odontomes, cysts, hypercementosis, and exfoliation. Physical anomalies were also observed, such as taurodontism shovel-shaped incisors, and supernumeraries. Records were also made of the size of the molars, with reference to:

(i) diminution in size from the first to the third molar;

(ii) equal size of all molars;

(iii) the regular occurrence of one molar larger than all the rest.

A note was also made if any of the above features appeared peculiar to any particular tribe. In some races the third molars were often absent, for example, the Chinese, Eskimos, and American Indians (all peoples of a Mongolian origin). In other races the third molars were commonly impacted, for example, the Australian aborigines.

Variations in the palate and jaws were noted, including differences in the size of the condyles and in the size and shape of the palate, including cleft palate. This latter condition is rare among the specimens that were studied, as few children in primitive societies were allowed to grow up with this deformity, for fear that it was linked to black magic.¹ Types of prognathism, occlusion (class (i), (ii), and (iii) after Angle’s classification), and attrition (after Pedersen’s classification) were also noted.

Some primitive tribes also mutilated their teeth by filing (e.g. in Australian aborigines) and even by inserting brass studs in them Nigeria), by knocking out the incisors, usually of the mandibles (e.g. (e.g. in Borneo)—see Plate I, b and d, and Plate V, d.

Information about the diet and habits of primitive people was also studied for their relation to the tooth conditions. Information was obtained from the following sources:

(i) The British Museum Records;

(ii) The British Museum Anthropological Library;

(iii) The Library of the Royal Anthropological Institute in Bedford Square;

(iv) The University College Hospital Medical School Library;

(v) The Food and Agricultural Organization;

(vi) The writer’s own notes and reports, taken while studying tribes in Siam, Lapland, New Guinea, Indonesia, and Canada;

(vii) The Museums of the Royal College of Surgeons.

The effects on the teeth and jaws of the following habits were recorded when studying the skulls:

(i) the absence of tooth cleaning;

(ii) the use of cleaning sticks, leather, or grit for cleaning;

(iii) the use or the non-use of tobacco;

(iv) tooth filing;

(v) betel nut chewing;

(vi) the chewing on leather as practised by Eskimo women, in the making of leather thonging and similar customs;

(vii) using the teeth in an occupation where it is necessary to bite on materials other than those mentioned above, such as gut in the making of bow strings and in the sewing of skins together; these habits can be found in one tribe of Arctic Indians (the Athabascans) and in one tribe in Central Australia (the Arunta). It will be observed that these two peoples live far apart yet have similar conditions.¹ (Plate I, a and c.)

The teeth and the jaws may also be affected by changes in diet brought about by:

(i) a change in the way of life through invasion by a foreign race;

(ii) adoption of new religious customs;

(iii) migration to areas yielding different foodstuffs;

(iv) alterations due to changes in agricultural methods;

(v) from a hard type diet to a sloppy food type.

A number of skulls of two types of primitive people, the New Guineans and the Andamanese, were examined in a pilot study. It appeared that in the New Guineans periodontal disease predominated and caries in the Andamanese. The former had a more or less vegetarian diet and the latter mainly a meaty one. Although, this did not provide very much to go on, it did suggest that there might be some kind of difference in the dental health between tribes that had a different diet, and this small survey therefore provided a starting point.

Again, from the frequent forages into the wealth of this material, one could not help but notice how, in some of the more primitive tribes, certain groups had been more conspicuously attacked by periodontal diseases than others.

Much of the material where the British Museum and the Royal College of Surgeons were concerned, had been collected during the nineteenth century when there was a great exodus of collectors from Britain. Often in fact the skulls were collected as an incidental part of some other investigation, by such explorers in some cases as Stanley, Du’Chaillu, and Baden Powell. At the time when the skulls were collected there had been little contact between these primitive races and the civilizing influences of the White Man. In the times between then and now some of the tribes represented in the British Museum collections have become extinct, for example, the Tasmanians and some Red Indian tribes, so that a valuable and unique collection of material exists there. (Plate II, a.)

Skulls that were too old and had no relevance to the study (e.g. those of Ancient Egypt and of the Incas), were not included, as they often showed too much post-mortem disintegration of the bone of the jaws, and also there was no accurate information about diet. Also eliminated were skulls originating from lands where there had been some contact with modern civilized diets, for example, parts of Europe and South America, as well as those skulls of individuals who had settled in countries other than their homeland, for example, overseas Chinese and West Indian Negroes.

The skulls selected were from races and tribes which fell into two main dietary