The remarkable similarity in the tooth size and morphology of monozygotic twins suggests a strong inheritability factor to tooth size and shape and that these may be useful as additional tools for zygosity determination along with other dental traits.
This method will measure changes in gingival tissues to within 60 microm in one plane, making it ideal for the assessment of longitudinal changes in gingival contour as seen in the development of gingival overgrowth, its recurrence after surgery or the changes in volume brought about by surgery.
A non-intrusive method is described which can be used to determine the forms of oral structures. It is based on the digitising of standard replicas with a co-ordinate-measuring machine. Supporting software permits a mathematical model of the surface to be reconstructed and visualised from captured three-dimensional co-ordinates. A series of surface data sets can be superposed into a common reference frame without the use of extrinsic markers, allowing changes in the shapes of oral structures to be quantified accurately over an extended period of time. The system has found numerous applications.
There are no published reports in the literature objectively quantifying thickness of plaque on teeth. The aim of this study was to quantify plaque on a tooth surface and assess if this quantification correlates with a clinical index of plaque from each of 51 patients. Patients were instructed not to perform any oral hygiene on the day of the assessment. The Silness and Löe plaque index was scored and replicas were scanned using a co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM) and laser scanning probe. A replica was obtained from this surface before and after toothbrushing. Plaque adjacent to the gingival margin had a mean thickness of 0.106+/-0.118 mm (mean+/-SD) whilst mean plaque thickness 250 microm from the gingival margin was 0.053+/-0.052 mm (mean+/-SD). There was a significant correlation between the plaque index and the plaque thickness (p < or = 0.002). The finding that plaque is present in the greatest amount adjacent to the gingival margin supports a previously reported hypothesis that primary root carious lesions (PRCL's) may initiate adjacent to the gingival margin. This method quantifies plaque thickness on exposed root surfaces which correlates with the plaque index as well as illustrating how the morphological characteristics of teeth, gingivae and plaque can be studied in vivo from replicas recorded.
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