No one likes having a dental cavity. They hurt and can be very expensive to take care of. Our species has been trying to fix our teeth for at least 14,000 years and painful dental problems even plagued Swedish vikings. More than 2,300 juvenile and adult teeth found near a church in Sweden dating back to the 10th through 12th Century CE had evidence of dental problems. They had evidence of tooth decay called caries and even oral diseases that some tried to treat. The findings are described in a study published December 13 in PLOS ONE.
[Related: This new synthetic tooth enamel is even harder than the real thing.]
“I think both dental caries and other dental diseases are very relatable,” Carolina Bertilsson, a study co-author and dentist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, tells PopSci. “It is awful to imagine the suffering some of these individuals with decay, tooth extractions, and infections must have gone through, without any of the methods we use today in modern dentistry.”
The teeth were uncovered during a 2005 excavation of the remains of a Christian church in present-day Skara, Sweden. The nearby cemetery contained thousands of Viking graves and a team from University of Gothenburg examined teeth belonging to 171 individuals. The team used radiography to take detailed images of the teeth that were also physically examined by a team of dentists and osteoarchaeologists.
While none of the juveniles had evidence of dental caries, 60 percent of the adult remains showed signs of tooth decay. The team also saw traces of tooth infection and signs that some teeth had been lost before death. Many of the individuals likely had tooth decay that would have been severe enough to cause pain and there were signs of attempted dental treatments. One individual also showed signs of filed front teeth similar to those seen in other Swedish Viking remains.
“It seems like the Vikings tried to file their teeth to ease the pain from…
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