Dentofacial Morphology of Japanese Skeletal Remains from Later Jomon Period

Abstract

Tooth to denture base discrepancy, one of the major pathogenic factors in dental diseases, is considered to be an expression of the evolution of human occlusion. If it is true, there should be preceding changes of jaw bones before the discrepancy becomes dominant. The present paper deals with the dentofacial morphology of Japanese skeletal remains from the later Jomon period, as the basis for studying the origin and pathogenic nature of the discrepancy.
Sixteen skulls from the later Jomon period were analyzed by means of roentgenographic cephalometrics, in which 12 linear and 22 angular measurements were included.
As the result of analysis, the character of the dentofacial complex was considered as; 1. the size of the facial cranium was almost the same with that of the moderns as a whole, 2. the mandible was very massive with well developed ramus, and, 3. antero-posterior length of the maxillary and mandibular apical bases were larger than those in the moderns. These character-istics seemend to reasonably correspond to the low discrepancy in that period.