Chronic maxillary sinusitis (CMS) is a much debated topic and the current clinical literature states that up to 40% of the maxillary sinusitis cases can be caused by dental disease. This is called...Show moreChronic maxillary sinusitis (CMS) is a much debated topic and the current clinical literature states that up to 40% of the maxillary sinusitis cases can be caused by dental disease. This is called odontogenic maxillary sinusitis (OMS). Unilateral CMS is even believed to be induced by dental disease in approximately 75% of the cases. In bioarchaeology, odontogenic sinusitis has been somehow understudied, since very few archaeological studies on sinusitis have taken dental disease into consideration. Studying the impact of dental disease can give more contextualisation to previous studies on respiratory disease, including CMS. Both CMS and dental disease can be observable in archaeological context as various skeletal changes. This thesis research aims to test if the presence of CMS is related to the presence of dental disease within two post-medieval populations from Arnhem and Middenbeemster. The dental pathological conditions that are included here are periapical abscesses, periodontal disease, ante-mortem tooth loss and oroantral fistulae. First, the relation between CMS and dental disease has been investigated for the sample in its entirety, as well as on the intrasite level. After this, differences in the prevalence rates of OMS were investigated on the intersite level (i.e., between populations and between sex groups across populations). Chi squared tests and the Fisher’s Exact Test were used to test the hypotheses. The results show that there is no statistically significant correlation between the presence of chronic maxillary sinusitis and the presence of dental disease. Moreover, the differences in the prevalence rates of CMS did not hold any statistical significance either. It can be suggested that other factors, such as climate, smoking, or hazards as the result of urbanisation, have played a bigger role in the development of chronic maxillary sinusitis in the current sample. Although not significant, there was a stronger correlation between CMS and dental disease in the rural sample than in the urban sample. A stronger relationship was also observed in females than in males. Therefore, it might be suggested that dental disease played a more important role in the development of CMS among these subgroups. Furthermore, it is observed that OMS is slightly more prevalent in the urban population and has a slight female predominance.Show less
