Observations on the Phenomena of Tooth Eruption

¹ Zoller Dental Clinic, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

The application of 2,000 R single massive dose of irradiation to the head of a 10-day-old rat produced rootless molars which erupted into the oral cavity and were in functional occlusion. The follicular sac of these molars demonstrated changes in cell and fiber size, number, and orientation and were interpreted as a growth of the follicle. On this basis, tooth eruption is interpreted as resulting from follicular sac growth.

The incisors demonstrated that the connective tissue cells were more radiation sensitive than the epithelial cells. In most instances, the involuted odontoblasts, ameloblasts, and mesenchymal cells regenerated, and the formation of a normal incisor occurred. This phenomenon of recovery has been previously recognized as the formation of a "second incisor."

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