People modify themselves...
... sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. As you probably know, the vertebrae in your backbone can be modified if you carry heavy loads for a long time, and you'll develop Schmorl’s node (a kind of notch in the bone where the nucleus pulposus is pushed into the vertebrae body).
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| Schmorl's node (aka "notch" or "depression") P/C: Wikimedia. |
And of course, modifying your teeth has been popular for some time. These are pictures of two Zapotec skulls I saw in the museum at Monte Alban, near Oaxaca, Mexico.
(And you thought wearing jewelry in your teeth was a modern thing... These dental inlays date from circa 200 AD.)
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| With jade inlays... |
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| Without the inlays... |
Whether from work (as in Schmorl's notch), or intentionally for beautification reasons, people have modified themselves in many ways over the years. Tattoos and scarification have been done forever, but modifications involving underlying bones or teeth are much less common, probably because of the possibility of things going badly.
But, bone and teeth modifications do happen. (Note that I'm excluding surgical operations, like trephination, from this discussion.)
As usual, if you know the exact term to describe what you're looking for, the search process becomes MUCH simpler. Seeing these "dental inlays" reminded me that they were common among the Maya, Zapotec, and Aztecs. Of course, knowing the term "dental inlay" makes your search much simpler, and a search for [ Maya dental inlay ] is really interesting.
So today's Challenge is to find a few specific terms to help target your searches in today's topic area.... bone & teeth modification!
1. I've heard that people who habitually smoke a pipe have a distinctive pattern of wear on their teeth. Does that particular pattern of wear have a specific name? What is it?
2. Same question, except for people who are habitual sewers (that is, people who make clothes often). Do they have a particular pattern of wear in their teeth? What's that called?
3. Despite the difficult of bone modification, there is one bone that is (was) commonly modified by certain groups of people. What bone is that? How was it usually modified?
In our usual way, please let us know the answers in the comment section below. Be sure to tell us HOW to found it! What queries did you do to discover the answer? (Or did you just know it off the top of your head?)
My answers (and answer paths) on Monday of next week.
Search on!
My answers (and answer paths) on Monday of next week.
Search on!
1. So my first search string was [dental pipe smoking tooth wear]. This gave me a few hits including a wiki page on tooth wear. Checking that out, it gave me different types wear (attrition, erosion, etc). Attrition seemed to make the most sense by definition, so my new search was [dental pipe smoking attrition] later refined to [dental pipe attrition]. Neither gave me hits in the first few results that looked promising but then I had an idea to do a image search which, you should know, is terrifying. BUT, I got a good lead. One of the photos showed tooth wear that looked like the result of years of pipe smoking, so I checked the referring page which brought me to this: http://pocketdentistry.com/1-erosion-is-it-a-problem/ A couple pictures are attributed as: Fig 1-2 Abrasion of the upper and lower incisors produced from contact with a pipe stem over many years. However, this page states it as erosion and not attrition. Then a search of that led me to a powerpoint presentation that says it is caused by abrasion (and gives seamstresses as a reason, too). THAT search led me to hit in Google Books called The Dental Cosmos, Vol 61 (https://books.google.com/books?id=JOYwAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA383&ots=ntfBz83Nee&dq=dental%20abrasion%20%20pipe&pg=PA383#v=onepage&q=dental%20abrasion%20%20pipe&f=false) It also mentions seamstresses. Both are considered localized abrasion.
ReplyDelete2) Same as above. I will say, though, that I am not 100% convinced this is the correct answer. I'm looking forward to seeing what others are coming up with.
3) Searching....
I had posted a followed shortly after this about the 3rd question but it never appeared :/
Delete1. I've heard that people who habitually smoke a pipe have a distinctive pattern of wear on their teeth. Does that particular pattern of wear have a specific name? What is it?
ReplyDelete[pipe smokers teeth] Finds lots of images of skulls with "pipe notches" worn in the front teeth from clay pipe wear.
2. Same question, except for people who are habitual sewers (that is, people who make clothes often). Do they have a particular pattern of wear in their teeth? What's that called?
[tailors notches] They have many small notches or grooves in teh front teeth from holding needles and pins. from bonesdontlie.
3. Despite the difficult of bone modification, there is one bone that is (was) commonly modified by certain groups of people. What bone is that? How was it usually modified?
[Skull deformation] Its cranial deformation; practised in many cultures and time spans. It is done by distorting the normal growth of a child’s skull by applying force. In a typical case, headbinding begins approximately a month after birth and continues for about six months.
Came across https://bonesdontlie.wordpress.com/ which has lots of good stuff
This was fun and scary. jon
I found similar answers as above, but I also think that the wear for a seamstress also comes from biting thread. At least I was warned about that when I was learning to sew.
ReplyDeleteAs to the bone that was/is modified - I would expect that to be the nose. It has got to be one of the most common forms of plastics surgery and goes back to Ancient Egypt.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/nose-job-history-plastic-surgery/403882/
http://www.nycfacemd.com/history-of-rhinoplasty/
Good day, Dr. Russell and everyone.
ReplyDelete[pipe smokers teeth pattern] [pipe smokers teeth pattern name]
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland By Sally M. Walker
Alveolar bone loss and tooth loss
[alveolar bone loss]
[pipe facets]
Trying Q2 google Suggested: [clothing maker tooth patterns] Didn't work
[teeth patterns modification]
Some anthropology literature will refer to this as accidental or artificial dental modifications.
[seamstresses teeth pattern]
Dental Anthropology: Figure shows Pen modification ("Usur")
[Table 1 Examples of markers of occupational stress reported by forensic anthropologists and anatomists]
[abrasion seamstresses teeth name] in All and books
For Q3, Not sure you refer to this but is well known than in China people tried to make small feet
[small feet china]
Wikipedia "Foot binding"
She says her mother used a long cloth to wrap her toes, minus the big toe, so they were bent pressed against the sole of her foot. Many of the foot bones would remain broken for years, but would start to heal as the girl grew older.
[lotus feet intext:broken bones]
Then, remembered Mayas and had another idea
[bone modification|deformation traditions]
Artificial cranial deformation
[mayan cranial deformation]
Head Space: Behind 10,000 Years of Artificial Cranial Modification
[artificial cranial deformation]
why-we-reshape-childrens-skulls
Cranial Deformation
Answers
1. I've heard that people who habitually smoke a pipe have a distinctive pattern of wear on their teeth. Does that particular pattern of wear have a specific name? What is it?
A: pipe facets. The curve of pipe's stems
2. Same question, except for people who are habitual sewers (that is, people who make clothes often). Do they have a particular pattern of wear in their teeth? What's that called?
A: Yes. Name is part of abrasion. Until now, havent found specific name. Pipe also is part of abrasion. "passio hydrophobica" is named in some books but need to verify.
3. Despite the difficult of bone modification, there is one bone that is (was) commonly modified by certain groups of people. What bone is that? How was it usually modified?
A: Skull. It is done by applying force and pressure using different appliances.
[dental modification due to labor]
DeleteOcclusal striae, or grooves, and anterior wear may also be attributed to taskrelated
wear. This type of occupational wear has been observed on an array of individuals, from basket makers to producers of clothing, all who exhibit occlusal grooves on their teeth (Milner and Larsen 1991)
[Occlusal striae]
All the teeth notches seems to fall into 3 categories:Occupational notches(tailors, hair dressers etc), Habitual notches(pipe smokers),Cultural notches(refers to notch producing activities which are specific to a culture) [Anterior Tooth Notches:an Anglo Saxon case stud]
ReplyDelete1. I've heard that people who habitually smoke a pipe have a distinctive pattern of wear on their teeth. Does that particular pattern of wear have a specific name? What is it?
HABITUAL NOTCHES - PIPE NOTCH
Gave many inputs and finally got a hit with [pattern on teeth of pipe smokers].
In one of the books "World of a Slave: Encyclopedia of the Material Life of ..." the contents read "Some who constantly clenched their pipes in their teeth wore perfect circular ...". A further study gave the word PIPE FACETS as well.
2. Same question, except for people who are habitual sewers (that is, people who make clothes often). Do they have a particular pattern of wear in their teeth? What's that called?
Occupational notches
Tailor's notch
3. Despite the difficult of bone modification, there is one bone that is (was) commonly modified by certain groups of people. What bone is that? How was it usually modified?
Artificial cranial deformation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_cranial_deformation
Skull-done by distorting the normal growth of a child's skull by applying force
[common bone modifications practice by human]
1. A pipe smoker might suffer from 'alveolar bone loss' and tooth loss. I started with the term 'tooth modification pipe smokers' but switched to 'dental modification pipe smokers' because I noticed that scholarly articles in my search results used that terminology. I found this study on the NIH site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9919032
ReplyDelete2. I actually started with this question. When I searched 'dental modification sewing' the results were all about sutures, not about sewing. I changed my search to 'dental modification tailors OR seamstress' to get rid of the suturing results and came across this article about dental modification among Greenland Norse people: http://www.unr.edu/Documents/liberal-arts/anthropology/Scott/Scott%20and%20Burgett.pdf
And here's another source that describes the abrasion common among tailors, who often hold pins in their mouths:
https://books.google.com/books?id=WnhtAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA573&lpg=PA573&dq=dental+modification+tailors+OR+seamstress&source=bl&ots=xUE1BmFVX5&sig=zu-04eF8EYCGz9KEiWsLyMeIVQ4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKxqDTyvfLAhUB4CYKHfipCQ8Q6AEIWTAJ#v=onepage&q=dental%20modification%20tailors%20OR%20seamstress&f=false
3. For this search I started with 'bone modification', quickly added 'human', tried 'modern', but finally used 'human bone modification examples'. This result gave me this site: https://beautifullybony.wordpress.com/bone-of-the-month/november-2013-human/skull-modification/ where I learned about trepanation and about skull shaping. The Mayans did this, evidently.