[Dental morphological and metric characteristics in contemporary and historical population of Târgu Mureș].

Introduction: Teeth, as an integral part of human organism, are not exceptions from the physical anthropology changes caused by biological evolution and the way of living. Different stress factors and the natural selection are contributing to the emphasis of certain morphological characteristics.
Aim: Comparison of dental metric characteristics and the presence of accessory tooth cusps between human remains from the Middle Ages and dental study models of today's patients.
Material and Method: Morphological characteristics of 132 teeth from 19 skulls and 694 teeth on dental models of 30 patients were examined. The mesiodistal, incisivocervical and buccolingual diameters of crowns were measured by a validated 2D image analysis method. Carabelli and talon cusps were also examined using a magnifying glass.
Results: Statistically significant differences between the size of the 14th-century and the present-day teeth were found in some of the teeth groups. In medieval artifacts, lateral teeth had smaller crown width than teeth measured in the contemporary population. The Carabelli cusps found in the archeological human remains belonged to grades 1 and 3 on Dahlberg scale (23.07%), while the Carabelli cusps observed in the contemporary group belonged to grades 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (50.90%). Talon cusp occurred only once in the contemporary group.
Conclusion: In case of the contemporary teeth, the Carabelli cusps appeared in a more pronounced morphological form and with a higher frequency, which emphasizes the European origin of today's population. Orv Hetil. 2018; 159(30): 1235-1240.