Dental Anthropology is a scientific discipline, which deals with studies of sexual dimorphism, paleodemography, oral health, lifestyle, evolutionary trends, paleodiet, biodistance and paleopathology through the analysis of the dentition of extinct and modern human populations and hence, is concerned with the study of morphological variation (dental morphological features) and metrics of the dentition of human populations over time (prehistoric and modern) and in space (ie.ethnic influences) and their relation with the processes of adaptation and dietary changes that led to the evolution of the dental system and the human race.(1,3) Keeping in mind the dental evolutionary changes, the subject experts, focus on the use of teeth to resolve anthropological problems. Teeth exhibit a wide array of variables, ranging from those largely controlled by genes to those largely dictated by environment. Dental variables under genetic control include crown and root morphology and size, along with tooth number (i.e., missing and extra teeth, or hypodontia and hyperdontia). Dental variables that reflect environmental factors include tooth crown wear and chipping, caries, abscesses, periodontal disease, calculus, and linear enamel hypoplasia. Anthropological questions focusing on teeth include issues of population origins and relationships (tooth morphology, size, number), diet and behavior (attrition, crown chipping, tooth-tool use), health (caries, abscesses, periodontal disease, calculus), and developmental stress (hypoplasia, asymmetry). Modern Dental Anthropology is the result of systematic efforts carried out by research teams for decades in order to strengthen the scientific nature of the discipline and tried to explain the enormous biological diversity of human populations. Dental anthropology is also applied to living people, using many of the same techniques employed for analyzing ancient remains and, so, it can be viewed as the collaborative effort of various subjects like: anthropology, clinical dentistry, biology, paleontology, and paleopathology. The subject, therefore, involves analysis of tooth metrics, non-metric patterns common to various ethnic groups and tooth wear patterns and food or other habits to identify and compare the period of existence of the creature bearing those teeth.
