Oral Health Heatmap

Heatmap of 28 permanent teeth for 1,176 Tsimane adults, colour-coded from healthy (blue) to missing (red).

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Project Summary

This heatmap shows the dental status of 1,176 Tsimane adults in the Bolivian Amazon across 28 permanent teeth (32,928 tooth observations). One view displays patterns of dental decay and tooth loss by age, sex, arch, and tooth position.

Visual Structure

The multi-panel figure arranges each observation along five explicit dimensions:

  • Population: Separate panels compare Men (n=543) and Women (n=633) side by side.
  • Anatomy: Upper (maxilla) and lower (mandible) arches appear in distinct sub-panels.
  • Tooth Type (X-axis): Columns list all 28 permanent teeth (excluding third molars), grouped into incisors, canines, premolars, and molars.
  • Individuals and Age (Y-axis): Each row represents one adult, sorted into age bands from 15-24 through 75+.
  • Health Status (Color Scale): A five-point ordinal color scale encodes each tooth from Healthy (blue) to Missing (dark red).

Key Findings

Reading down and across the panels shows four clear patterns in the published cohort:

  1. High Observation Density: All 32,928 tooth-level records remain visible without hiding individual variation behind summary averages.
  2. Tooth Vulnerability by Type: First and second molars decay and are lost earliest, while canines stay intact longest.
  3. Age Progression: Sorting rows from age 15-24 to 75+ traces cumulative decay and tooth loss across adulthood.
  4. Sex Comparison: Side-by-side panels show earlier and more widespread tooth loss among Tsimane women than men.