A Study of the Vascular Pattern of the Rat Mandible Using Microangiography

¹ Department of Oral Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario

One of the major blood vessels of the mandible is an unnamed branch originating from the external maxillary (facial) artery, entering the bone through a foramen on the lingual side of the mandible inferior to the lower border of the incisor tooth at the most anterior point of the ramus.

The head of the condyle is supplied by the inferior alveolar artery, as well as the vessels originating from the temporomandibular joint capsule and external pterygoid muscle.

The blood vessels of the mandibular incisor pulp tissue almost reach to the incisal edge of the tooth.

The molar teeth, their periodontal membranes, and interradicular and interdental bone are supplied mainly by vessels originating from the blood-vessel plexus on the superior border of the periodontal membrane of the incisor tooth and are supplemented by branches of the inferior alveolar artery.