Effects of the Physical Consistency of Diet on the Condylar Growth of the Rat Mandible

¹ School of Dentistry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Watts and Williams¹ demonstrated that a difference in the physical consistency of the diet produced definite differences in the growth and development of the rat maxilla and mandibles.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of diet consistency on the growth of the mandibular condyle of the rat. A group of 30 male weanling rats of the Long-Evans strain was divided equally into two groups. Group 1 was placed on rat diet whole pellets,^* while Group 2 was placed on ground rat diet.^* The nutritional aspects of these diets were the same. All animals were fed and watered ad libitum and housed under identical environments.

Both groups were sacrificed after 18 weeks on the experimental diets and decapitated and the femurs removed. These bones were cleaned and dried for at least a week before measurement. Linear and planimetric measurements and weights were determined for these bones. The results (Table 1) showed a significance between the differences of the weight of the animals and the dimensions and weight of the bones and areas studied. The hard-diet group differences were larger in all respects.

The conclusion of this study was that the physical diet consistency significantly affected the growth of the condyle of the rat, the hard-diet group being larger in all respects.

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