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Journal article
Antemortem tooth loss as a biomarker of poverty: Dental evidence of “weathering” in a contemporary U.S. skeletal sample
Forensic science international. Synergy, Vol.6, 100333
05/2023
PMCID: PMC10258239
PMID: 37313393
Abstract
In societies where resources are unequally distributed, structural inequities can be physically embodied over lifetimes. Lived experiences including racism, sexism, classism, and poverty can lead to chronic stress that prematurely ages body systems. This study tests the hypothesis that members of structurally vulnerable groups will exhibit premature aging in the form of antemortem tooth loss (AMTL). Analyzing Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and white skeletal donors from the University of Tennessee, we predict that individuals from structurally vulnerable groups will exhibit more AMTL than individuals with more social privilege. We find some evidence for increased AMTL in BIPOC individuals, but significantly more AMTL in low-socioeconomic-status white individuals than either BIPOC or high-SES white individuals. We maintain that high rates of AMTL provide evidence of embodied consequences of social policies and utilize the violence continuum to theorize the ways in which poverty and inequity are normalized in U.S. society.
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- Title
- Antemortem tooth loss as a biomarker of poverty
- Publication Details
- Forensic science international. Synergy, Vol.6, 100333
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Elsevier B.V
- Format
- link
- Number of pages
- 10
- Copyright
- © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
- Identifiers
- 99380186297106600
- Academic Unit
- College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities; Anthropology
- Language
- English