Alveolar bone loss and dentoalveolar remodelling in pre-Columbian human remains from northern Chile

Abstract

Alveolar bone loss in archaeological human remains is a composite skeletal outcome influenced by biological ageing, occlusal function, compensatory eruption, antemortem tooth loss, and inflammatory destruction. Accordingly, cementoenamel junction–alveolar crest (CEJ–AC) distance should not be interpreted as a stand-alone diagnosis of periodontitis. This study reanalysed the recoverable individual-level raw repository records for 96 crania from pre-Columbian northern Chile. The reconstructed dataset contained 4,076 numeric CEJ–AC measurements from distal, vestibular, and mesial positions. The individual was treated as the inferential unit. Individual mean CEJ–AC, maximum CEJ–AC, the worst individual CEJ–AC band, and the presence of any site ≥4 mm were derived directly from the raw records. In models adjusted for sex and the number of numeric sites available, higher ordered age category was associated with a more severe worst-site CEJ–AC band (OR 2.07, 95 % CI 1.14–3.77; p = 0.018) and with a small increase in individual mean CEJ–AC (β = 0.092 mm per age category, 95 % CI 0.004–0.181; p = 0.041), whereas no independent sex effect was detected. A structured photographic audit of the same 96 unique individuals provided contextual outcomes for basal cortical porosity, wear, tooth loss, caries-compatible lesions, fracture-compatible changes, and pitting. These findings support a cautious multiparametric interpretation in which metric alveolar reduction, localized defect morphology, dental condition, and generalized cortical morphology are treated as related but non-equivalent lines of osteological evidence.