THE EFFECT OF CORTISONE ON THE HEALING OF EXTRACTION WOUNDS IN THE RAT

¹ Indiana University School of Dentistry, Department of Oral Histopathology, Indianapolis, Ind.

1. Study of healing of extraction wounds in cortisone treated rats showed no evidence of retardation of the healing process until the tenth day, when lack of maturation of granulation tissue and lack of re-epithelialization was noted. By the twenty-first day, incomplete epithelialization was still prominent, as well as incomplete sequestration and residual inflammation.

2. There appeared to be little interference with the formation of new bone in the sockets throughout the experiment in the treated animals.

3. The findings are not in complete accord with other wound healing studies in different species and may be partially explained by the relative resistance of the rat to cortisone.