{"id":1660,"date":"2014-01-30T15:00:14","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mikemalonedds.com\/blog1\/?p=1660"},"modified":"2019-08-06T20:04:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T20:04:37","slug":"teeth-can-tell-a-story-the-justinian-plague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.camelliadds.com\/blog1\/teeth-can-tell-a-story-the-justinian-plague\/","title":{"rendered":"Teeth Can Tell A Story: The Justinian Plague"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at McMaster University\u2019s Ancient DNA Center in Canada have uncovered a link between two of the deadliest plagues in European history &#8212; the Justinian Plague and the Black Death.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Plague_of_Justinian\">Justinian Plagu<\/a>e hit Byzantine Europe in the 6th century under the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian, hence the name.\u00a0 The plague is suspected to have killed millions.\u00a0 Although an exact number is unknown, some historians estimate around 50 million deaths, and even attribute the Justinian Plague as a cause of the fall of the Roman Empire, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/health-shots\/2014\/01\/29\/267598868\/ancient-plagues-dna-revived-from-a-1-500-year-old-tooth\">NPR<\/a>.\u00a0 The Black Death on the other hand struck Europe not until the 14th century.\u00a0 It was one of the most devastating pandemics in European history, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Black_Death\">having killed between 75 and 200 million people just within the years of 1348-1350. \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The evidence was drawn from the skeletons of people killed by the Justinian Plague, found in the ground by real estate developers outside of Munich in Germany.\u00a0 These skeletons were thoroughly examined &#8212; but it was their teeth from which scientists were able to draw conclusions, linking these two deadly plagues.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After extracting traces of blood within the skeleton\u2019s tooth, researchers \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/health-shots\/2014\/01\/29\/267598868\/ancient-plagues-dna-revived-from-a-1-500-year-old-tooth\">reconstructed the genetic code of a strain of bacteria<\/a>\u201d that indeed caused the Justinian Plague 1500 years ago.\u00a0 This strain of bacteria called <i>Yersinia pestis<\/i> is the same pathogen that caused the bubonic plague &#8212; which has been the suspected cause of the Black Death.<\/p>\n<p>The significance of these findings is knowing that in history, various forms of the plague, all caused by the same pathogen, has inflicted humans without warning and spread like wildfire each time.\u00a0 But how?\u00a0 Scientists predict in the case of the Justinian plague, rodents infected humans first and the disease spread quickly thereafter.\u00a0 The plague ended when nearly every infected human died.\u00a0 The Black Death however, was caused by the same strain of bacteria, but it was caused by a separate event entirely.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/science.time.com\/2014\/01\/28\/these-1500-year-old-teeth-prove-the-bubonic-plague-isnt-dead-yet\/\">Time magazine<\/a>, each occurrence of plague in history was not a \u201cwild fluke\u201d and it could happen again.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But don\u2019t get worried just yet.\u00a0 While a pandemic <i>could<\/i> happen again as it has in history, it\u2019s not very likely.\u00a0 Thousands of incidents of plague still occur all over the world each year.\u00a0 These cases are still spread in the same way as in the Justinian era &#8212; by bacteria-carrying fleas or rodents.\u00a0 Fortunately, modern medicine has given us the antibiotics to treat the disease is in its early stages.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is yet another scientific study that proves how resilient teeth are.\u00a0 Even after 1,500 hundred years we are able to learn much about a civilization based on a tooth exam!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.camelliadds.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/about_doc_0211-e1286412992686.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-884\" src=\"https:\/\/www.camelliadds.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/about_doc_0211-e1286412992686.jpg\" alt=\"about_doc_0211-e1286412992686\" width=\"131\" height=\"189\" \/><\/a>Dr. Mike Malone\u00a0and his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.camelliadds.com\/about_us.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">team<\/a>\u00a0practice expert cosmetic dentistry in Lafayette, LA. Dr. Malone is the former president and current accredited member of the<a href=\"https:\/\/aacd.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry<\/a>. He\u00a0is also the official Cosmetic Dentist of the Miss Louisiana USA and Miss Louisiana Teen USA pageants. Check out his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.camelliadds.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Researchers at McMaster University\u2019s Ancient DNA Center in Canada have uncovered a link between two of the deadliest plagues in European history &#8212; the Justinian Plague and the Black&nbsp; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.camelliadds.com\/blog1\/teeth-can-tell-a-story-the-justinian-plague\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":1667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[327,363],"tags":[628,626,623,622,629,438,130,624,211,430,621,630,627,625,329],"class_list":{"0":"post-1660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dentistry","8":"category-health-lifestyle","9":"tag-bacteria","10":"tag-bacterium","11":"tag-black-death","12":"tag-bubonic-plague","13":"tag-disease","14":"tag-dna","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european-history","17":"tag-history-2","18":"tag-illness","19":"tag-justinian-plague","20":"tag-pandemic","21":"tag-pathogen","22":"tag-skeletons","23":"tag-teeth","24":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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