NONINVASIVE COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY AND 3-DIMENSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE DENTITION OF A 2,800-YEAR-OLD EGYPTIAN MUMMY EXHIBITING EXTENSIVE DENTAL DISEASE

A second CT scan of the mummy Djedmaatesankh, which is housed in the R oyal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, has been undertaken after an in terval of some 15 years, The image data set of her dentition and the a ssociated tissues acquired from 3 mm thick x 3 mm spacing slices was t ransferred to an ISG Allegro work station where two-dimensional reform ats and three-dimensional reconstructions were produced, This non-inva sive examination provided information on dental disease that is, in a number of respects, an advance on that which previously could be obtai ned from mummies by the traditional methods of visual inspection after unwrapping and by two-dimensional radiography. The two- and three-dim ensional images reveal that: three molars are missing and the right ma xillary canine is impacted; the rest of the dentition is afflicted by severe attrition, caries and periodontal disease; and, of the 28 teeth present in the mouth, 24 exhibit exposure of their dental pulps and 1 8 are afflicted by periapical lesions including five that could have c ontributed to a large secondarily infected radicular cyst, The cyst ha s displaced the maxillary antrum and enlarged the maxilla on its later al aspect and the vault of the palate on its medial aspect, Pus from t he cyst may have drained through five different sinuses. In life, Djed maatesankh's widespread dental infection probably caused her considera ble pain, personal distress and malaise, and possibly resulted in her death, (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.