What are some good dental anthroplogy texts?

December 13, 2007 6:17 PM

What are some good books focusing on dental anthropology and evolution?

A very close friend of mine is planning on attending dental school soon but started her academic career, and maintains a healthy interest, in anthropology. I would very much like to get her a book or two about dental anthropology the evolution of teeth for Christmas, however I have very little clue about the field myself.

I've done cursory Amazon searches and have found a few books that fit the requirements, but I don't know enough to be able to tell if they are actually good. She knows quite a bit of terminology and such already, so highly technical books are definitely welcome.

Any dentists or anthropologists here have suggestions as to what would be a good book?

posted by Loto to Shopping (3 answers total)

a google search for the keywords "anthropological dentition books" turned up some pretty good things. I don't know how many books you would find on that subject, but this looks like a start. It seems likely that you will have trouble finding entire books, but you will probably find a lot of academic journal articles and graduate level papers on the subject.
posted by Phoenix42 at 7:04 PM on December 13, 2007

In Lucy, Donald Johanson's book about his discovery of the famous australopithecus skeleton, he spends a decent amount of time comparing the dental features of various hominids. It's not the focus of the book, but it's a fairly interesting read anyway. Also, Lucy's bones are currently touring the US, so it would be a good way to brush up on their history if your friend is planning to check them out.
posted by erikgrande at 7:09 AM on December 14, 2007

Curriculum may have changed over the last 17 years but we had just a little bit of dental anthropology in our Dental Anatomy class. I would be surprised if they taught any more now than then.

There is a book "Dental Anthropology" but I have no idea how good it is, sounds like a textbook: http://books.google.com/books?id=O1yBYDp6iB8C&dq=dental+anthropology&pg=PP1&ots=dIjFu4CvUD&sig=2BKOFz97q8p6jZclB6YAVOBKIC4&prev=http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=dental+anthropology&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail&hl=en

On a different note is the book "Dentistry: An illustrated History": http://www.amazon.com/Dentistry-Illustrated-Malvin-E-Ring/dp/0810981165
A large format coffee table type book which I really enjoyed, good gift book for a dental type.

It seems to be out of print but some used ones are for sale. Wish her well in dental school.
posted by Northwest at 11:51 AM on December 14, 2007