Ötzi the Iceman gets to see a dentist for the first time ever

Apr 11, 2013 07:16 GMT  ·  By

Ötzi the Iceman was discovered in the Austrian-Italian Alps back in 1991. Since then, the mummy was made to undergo a series of tests and investigations meant to offer some insights into his life, and perhaps even explain how it was that he died.

Still, it was only recently when a team of researchers decided that it might not be a bad idea to also have a look at Ötzi's teeth.

Long story short, it was discovered that, apart from “sporting” several abrasions and cavities, the Iceman's teeth had also been affected by a mechanical trauma at some point in his life.

Given the fact that said trauma appears to have only damaged Ötzi's front teeth, the researchers suspect that it was probably an accident.

RedOrbit informs us that, following his using state-of-the-art computer tomography data to examine the Iceman's teeth, dentist Roger Seiler reached the conclusion that this 5,300-year-old Iceman also suffered with periodontitis.

This basically means that the tissue found around his teeth (i.e. the peridontium) was either badly swollen, or missing altogether.

Commenting on these findings, researcher Roger Seiler made a case of how, “The loss of the periodontium has always been a very common disease, as the discovery of Stone Age skulls and the examination of Egyptian mummies has shown.”

“Ötzi allows us an especially good insight into such an early stage of this disease,” the researcher went on to argue.

The specialists who have had the opportunity to examine Ötzi's teeth believe that their being in such a poor condition was a direct result of the Iceman's diet, which is believed to have included significant amounts of “treats” such as various types of bread and cereal porridge.

A detailed account of this investigation into Ötzi the Iceman's teeth and their health was published in the European Journal of Oral Sciences on April 9.