Course and Resection of the Inferior Alveolar Nerve in the Albino Rat

Abstract

Gross and microscopic dissections of the rat mandible displayed the courses of the inferior alveolar nerve to the molar teeth and soft tissues. 10u thick frozen-dry sections of the mandible mounted in paraffin oil and studied under polarized light showed the course of the incisal branch of the nerve as being recurrent and following the same pattern as the upper or maxillary incisal branch. Resection of the inferior alveolar nerve resulted in the mandibular incisor of the operated side erupting at a faster rate than normal and the opposing upper incisor erupting at a slower rate than normal. 10u sections stained with H and E showed responses of hypocalcified dentin, globular dentin and vasodilation of the blood vessels. In cases where the eruption of the mandibular incisor was extreme, the dentin was very globular. The odontoblasts reacted bizarrly as a very wide predentin was observed as well as many islands of trapped odontoblasts in the dentin. The appearance was that of osteodentin.