The effect of excision of the root apex on the intrusive mobility of anterior teeth in adult monkeys ( Macaca fascicularis)

Abstract

Intrusive tooth mobility was recorded on anterior teeth in four adult male animals by linear variable-differential transformers. Reflection of the labial mucosa caused a significant increase in mobility at 4 N when the loading rate was slow (1 N s −1) but not when fast (100 N s −1). No significant additional increase in mobility was recorded after the apices were removed from eight incisors and canines. A further study on five incisors was made in which the displacement at 4 N load was noted half hourly during a control period of 5 or 6 h. Some weeks later, the sequence was repeated but the apices were resected after 3 or 4 h. As there was no increase in mobility for the majority of teeth following apicectomy and, for two teeth studied in detail where there was an increase, that change was short lived; it seems that compression in the fundus of the socket is not a mechanism of importance in supporting the tooth against small intrusive loads.