Ritual tooth modification among the Baka pygmies in Cameroon

Ritual tooth mutilation is a relatively understudied human body mutilatory practices. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of ritual tooth modification, teeth cleaning measures and herbal medications for their oral health problems among the Baka pygmies in Cameroon.

This cross-sectional study was conducted between January and March, 2012 using semi-structured questionnaire as the tool of data collection. Intra-oral examinations were carried out to determine the dental hard tissue loss using Smith and Knight Tooth Wear Index (TWI).

Fifty-six pygmies with ritual tooth modification made of 34 males (60.7%) and 22 females (39.3%) with a mean age of 31 years were interviewed and had oral health examination. The reported age at which the tooth modification was done was between 10 and 15 years with mean age as 12 ± 1.66 years. More than half (58.9%) of the participants reported the tooth filing as painful and nearly two-thirds (64.3%) of the participants reported having persistent pain afterwards. The upper right central and lateral incisors were the most commonly modified teeth. A total of 42.9%, 12.5% and 7.1% of the participants had Smith and Knight TWI scores of 2, 3 and 4 respectively. All the participants reported cleaning their teeth at least once-daily with about two-thirds (66.1%) of them doing so with chewing stick. The majority (67.9%) of the participants reported cleaning their teeth for cosmetic reasons [to remove dirt' (60.7%) and 'to remove stains' (7.1%)]. The oral health problems among the participants in form of tooth sensitivity, toothache and dental abscess were treated with plant-based traditional medicines from Irvingia gabonensis, Ricinodendron heudoletti, Pterocarpus soyauxii, Alchornea cordifolia and Piptadeniastrum africanum.

Ritual tooth modification is a painful mutilatory practice which is culturally significant for the Baka pygmies without health benefit. There is need for intervention to stop this harmful traditional practices among the pygmies. Further studies is recommended to elucidate the medicinal and pharmaceutical benefits of plants used for tooth sensitivity and other oral health problems by the pygmies.