Experimental Study of Tooth Eruption and the Effects of Drugs using Soft X-ray Photographic and Continuous Electromechanical Methods

Abstract

I have developed two new methods for accurate measurement of tooth eruption. One utilizes soft x-ray photography and provides lateral measurement along the curvature of an incisor and fixes standard points. The other, utilizing magnetic induction, allows continuous measurement of tooth eruption, taking into account respiratory and heart movement.
Using these two methods I have examined tooth eruption and the effects of anesthetics in rats and rabbits. In rats, a unilateral mandibular incisor was cut and the other left intact. The ratio of the eruption rates of the cut and un-cut incisors, determined by the soft x-ray phtographic method, served as an index of the response of proliferative basal tissue cells. Eruption was also measured in rabbits using an electromechanical appliance.
Both animals were anesthetized with Pentobarbital sodium, Ketamine hydrochloride and Urethane. Pentobarbital sodium and Ketamine hydrochloride did not influence the eruption rate, but Urethane markedly inhibited eruption. This is considered to be due to inhibition of protein synthesis rather than to anesthetic action.