Purpose: To determine the frequency of tooth loss of 
individuals who lived during the nineteenth century and 
compare it to the current prevalence of tooth loss of an 
adult population in the US. 
Materials and Methods: A group of 177 full maxillary 
and mandibular casts from patients with restorative needs 
currently assisted at the University of Pittsburgh and a 
collection of 52 adult skulls that belongs to the University 
of Pittsburgh, School of Dental Medicine were examined. 
The human skulls were likely from individuals of lower 
socioeconomic status and were expected to have more 
tooth loss than individuals living today who can benefit 
from modern dentistry. Teeth that were either missing or 
required extraction were identified in both groups and 
non-parametric statistical analysis was performed. 
Results: Of the 177 casts studied, 36 had complete 
dentition, 20 were fully edentulous, and 121 were 
partially dentate. In the skulls population, 17 of the 52 
skulls still retained their full dentition (p = 0.06). No 
skulls were found to be fully edentulous (p = 0.004). 
Specific tooth loss was mostly consistent between the two 
study groups. Overall, all first molars tended to be the 
most commonly missing teeth in both population groups. 
The casts from the current adult population had canines, 
lower central incisors, upper and lower left lateral incisor, 
lower left second premolar, lower right first molar, and  lower left second molar more frequently missing (p < 
0.05).  
Conclusions: This study found that a sampling of today's 
adult population from Pittsburgh has equal or greater 
tooth loss compared to a population that lived more than a 
century ago in the northeast of the United States. 

Keywords: Dental Caries; Epidemiology; Dental 
Forensics