SOME CHANGES IN THE CONNECTIVE TISSUE GROUND SUBSTANCE ASSOCIATED WITH THE ERUPTION OF THE TEETH
MILTON B. ENGEL M.S., D.D.S.1
1 The Departments of Dental Therapeutics and Applied Materia Medica and Orthodontia, University of Illinois College of Dentistry, Chicago, Ill.
The connective tissue ground substance overlying and surrounding growing erupting teeth contains carbohydrate components. In some forms such as the fetal pig and calf and in the young rat, large quantities of hyaluronic acid appear to be present. As the teeth approach the surface of the oral mucous membrane, the ground substance is altered; it is thought to become depolymerized as deduced by its ability to bind vitally injected Evans blue, its staining reaction with the periodic acid-leucofuchsin procedure, and its increased content of water-soluble alcohol-insoluble carbohydrate.
Submitted on December 12, 1950
