Anthropological Approach of the Proximal Tooth Area: A Systematic Review
An analysis of dental anthropological literature dealing with the dental wear of prehistoric men, reveals that little information about interproximal dental attrition and its evolution with the modern man is available. This observation marked anthropologists and dentists for long. The objective of this review is to determine the origin of the interproximal contact region of the tooth. In other words, which interproximal contact was first to appear in human dentitions? Is it the interproximal contact point or the contact surface?An electronic search was performed in four databases: PUBMED, SCOPUS, Cochrane Database, and EBSCO. Our search was limited to articles in English. We included in our research dental and anthropological studies concerning Homo sapiens and excluded all the other species such as Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Rhudolfensis, and Homo Neandertalensis. Attritional occlusion and flattened proximal facets are considered some of the main characteristics of the masticatory system of nonindustrialized men. Theories and dental researches tried to explain the proliferation of malocclusion and severe tooth crowding in modern society.The study of dental wear is a path of research that highlights the evolution of the manducatory system and thus, it influences the choice of treatment in our practices.