March 2, 2007 — Ick factor aside, ancient tartar-encrusted teeth may be a biological gold mine for scientists, thanks to a new technique for extracting food particles from teeth that once belonged to prehistoric humans.
The method already has solved a mystery surrounding what early coastal Brazilians ate.
In the future, similar studies may reveal clues about other ancient diets, particularly in areas with little plant preservation from earlier times.
"There is great potential of dental calculus (old tooth tartar) analysis in past populations that inhabited tropical regions," said Sabine Eggers, co-author on a new study detailing the method.
Eggers is a researcher in the Biological Anthropology Laboratory at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
After being awarded a Fulbright Commission grant, she and colleagues Celia Boyadjian and Karl Reinhard created the new tartar extraction method, which involves a "dental wash" containing four percent hydrochloric acid as the main active ingredient.
Their findings have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Eggers explained that ancient tartar could reveal what an individual ate in the days or weeks before death. Evidence suggests some prehistoric populations cleaned their teeth — using fibrous foods and shell fragments as natural abrasives — but many groups simply let nature take its course.
