Filling in the Gap: A quantitative analysis of dental restoration types among body donors of Asian descent at the Mann-Labrash Osteological Collection

Abstract

The Mann-Labrash Osteological Collection at the University of Hawai’i John A. Burns School of Medicine houses over 230 skeletal remains amassed through the Willed Body Program. Of these donors, seventy-eight were of East and Southeast Asian American and Pacific Islander descent. This unique collection offers an exciting opportunity for skeletal analyses of these populations left understudied in the body of anthropological scientific literature. This thesis explores the dietary causes of dental disease and dental restorations from the past to the present. Additionally, macroscopic analyses and Chi-square statistical tests determined which sex cohorts utilized dental restorative prostheses in life. Also addressed are the socioeconomic determinants of dental care access among these underrepresented groups. Lastly, because of the marginal availability of East and Southeast Asian American and Pacific Islander skeletal remains in US reference collections, an examination of death ideologies and organ donor hesitancies held by these communities are reviewed

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