Clinical and structural alterations characterizing healing gingiva.

Lindhe, Jan; Parodi, Ricardo; Liljenberg, Birgitta; Fornell, Jan

The aim of the present study was to compare the structural composition of the gingiva of dogs which had not previously suffered from inflammation with that of gingiva which for 6 months had been inflamed, but subsequently healed. The experiments were carried out in eight dogs. After weaning, the dogs were daily subjected to tooth cleaning. When the animals were 10 months old a clinical examination was carried out after which the dogs were randomly distributed into two groups, A and B. Immediately after the clinical assessments, gingival biopsies were obtained from the premolars and molars of the dogs of Group A. The dogs of Group B were allowed to accumulate plaque during a 6-month period after which the examinations were repeated and biopsies were sampled from pre- determined areas of the dentition. Following biopsy the remaining teeth of the dogs of Group B were scaled. During the subsequent 6 weeks, the animals were daily subjected to tooth cleaning. The examinations were repeated and biopsies sampled on days 4, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 42. The biopsy material was subjected to morphometric analysis. The results showed that it is possible to shift a chronically inflamed gingiva into one which, from a clinical and structural point of view, is almost identical to a gingiva which has never been exposed to gross plaque accumulation. This shift was achieved by elimination of calculus and plaque and by the institution of a careful, daily practiced plaque control program. During healing, the inflammatory cell infiltrate in the connective tissue below the junctional epithelium gradually disappeared and became replaced by collagen. In comparison to inflamed gingiva during healing, the leukocyte content of the junctional epithelium was reduced, while rete peg formations remained. In the connective tissue papillae beneath these rete pegs, vessels could be recognized. This gave the connective tissue of the healed gingiva a higher vascular content than that of a gingiva which had not previously suffered from inflammation.

DENTITION; GINGIVA; MUSCULOSKELETAL system; PATHOLOGY; CONNECTIVE tissues; TEETH

Journal of Periodontal Research, 1978, Vol 13, Issue 5, p410

0022-3484

Academic Journal

10.1111/j.1600-0765.1978.tb00195.x