title: A biometric analysis in the rat of the horizontal component of physiological tooth migration and its response to altered occlusal function.
abstract: The direction and amplitude of physiological tooth migration, as well as the influence of occlusal force on this movement, were evaluated macroscopically in the rat by biometric means. The first experiment, which compared the position of the teeth in the anteroposterior plane of the maxilla between two groups of 20 and 28 rats killed at age 15 and 52 weeks, respectively, confirmed the distal direction of this drift. In a second experiment, after suppression of the antagonist occlusal contacts of the maxillary left dental hemiarch in nine rats, the migration of this hemiarch was compared to that of the hyperfunctional contralateral hemiarch and to that of the molars in a control group of 20 rats. A statistically significant (t-test) reduction of the physiological migration in the absence of occlusion, was revealed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de physiologie orofaciale, U.F.R. d'Odontologie, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Roux
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meunier
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Woda
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001732:Bite Force; D003724:Dental Arch / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D008409:Mastication / Q000502:physiology; D008963:Molar / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014085:Tooth Migration