Dental Features of a Low-Caries Primitive Population

The Kalahari desert is a great expanse of sand-veld situated in the central part of Southern Africa. Although it is almost completely devoid of surface water, game is plentiful and it is inhabited by one of the most primitive races in the world, the Bushman. Some Bushmen still lead a nomadic existence following game as it moves in search of better grazing.' They live in small groups, and during the day the men hunt, usually with bows and arrows, and the women gather berries, fruits, and roots. The adult Bushman is about 5 ft. in height, yellow-skinned, and distinguished from other races by a number of morphologic features that have been described as infantile2 or fetal.3 For instance, he has a narrow forehead that rises vertically or that may even protrude anteriorly and is bossed like that of a baby. His face is small in comparison with his calvarium, and his nose is short, broad, and flat like that of a child. His jaws are small and his palate flat. In comparison with other peoples of Southern Africa, the Bushman has a low incidence of dental caries.4 Grainger, Paynter, and Shawl have shown that morphologic differences exist in the teeth of caries-free and caries-resistant rats. It might therefore be possible that differences also exist in the teeth of caries-free and caries-susceptible people. In this report, the dental features of caries-free and caries-susceptible Bushmen are compared.