The interdental gingivae

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Abstract
Material from 20 young rhesus monkeys was prepared for study of the interdental gingival epithelium. An additional four young monkeys were injected with tritiated thymidine and radioautographs prepared for analysis of cell turnover.It was found that the interdental gingiva between recently erupted teeth in proximal contact has a col form. The appearance of the col can be simulated by vertical sections close to the roots of single teeth. Analysis of sections through the actual col showed that it is always lined by squamous epithelium, five or more cell‐layers thick, without any recognizable ameloblasts. The radioautographs showed consistent evidence of thymidine uptake, indicating cell‐division, in all epithelia lining the col. It was concluded that the histological features and turnover‐rate of epithelium in the interdental region are closely analogous to those of epithelium on other aspects of the teeth.Clinical studies of the presence and amount of plaque and gingivitis in 1,075 intact interdental areas in 48 young adults showed a high degree of correlation between the presence and amount of plaque and the presence and severity of gingivitis, and lend support to the hypothesis that gingivitis starts interdentally because plaque accumulates there.

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