Abstract
Sociocultural research indicates that women have, historically, participated in betel nut chewing more than men. This thesis investigates whether women in a modern Thai population consume more betel nuts and assesses whether there is a correlation between individuals with darkly stained teeth and a lower prevalence of dental caries. To answer these questions, I examined the dentition of 69 individuals to determine if any of them chewed betel nuts by evaluating the prevalence of dental caries, dental wear, and dark staining, each of which may indicate betel nut chewing. I used chi-square tests to assess if women chewed more betel nuts and if there was an association between individuals having darkly stained teeth and a lower prevalence of dental caries. The results indicate that while women had more darkly stained teeth and fewer dental caries, suggesting that more women chewed betel nuts, the differences were not statistically significant. The statistics regarding the association between dark staining and a lower prevalence of dental caries were significant in the population. However, the statistics for the female subpopulation do not indicate a statistically significant association between darkly stained teeth and a lower prevalence of dental caries due to the cariostatic properties of chewing betel nuts. From a bioarchaeological perspective, if men are reported to have more dental caries than women, it suggests a need to look for a different dental caries trend in populations that participate in chewing betel nuts.