INNERVATION
The innervation to the periodontium occurs via this Cranial Nerve.
What is the Trigeminal (V)?
Provides a seal around the cervical portion of the tooth, covers the alveolar processes of the jaws, and holds the tissue against the tooth during mastication.
What is the Gingiva?
The apical boundary, or lower edge, of the gingiva. It is dark red, smooth, and shiny.
What is the alveolar mucosa?
The widest area of attached gingiva occurs on these teeth.
What is the incisor and the molar?
Also known as the alveolar bone, this exists only in the presence of teeth to provide support and protection for the tooth roots.
What is the alveolar process?
The Cranial Nerve V2 exists from the skull through this area and then to the skin of the middle face to provide innervation to the maxilla.
What is the foramen rotundum?
Suspends and maintains the tooth in its socket.
Also provides sensory feeling to the tooth; nutrition to the cementum and bone; builds and maintains cementum and alveolar bone of the tooth socket; contains fibroblasts, cementoblasts, and enameloblasts; can remodel the alveolar bone in response to pressure.
What is the Periodontal Ligament (PDL)?
The clinically visible boundary where the pink attached gingiva meets the red, shiny alveolar mucosa.
The narrowest attached gingiva occurs on this tooth.
What is the promolar?
The thin layer of bone that lines the socket that surrounds the tooth root. Has foramina that allow blood vessels from cancellous bone to connect with vessels of the PDL.
AKA the alveolar bone proper.
What is the cribriform plate?
The vascular supply to the maxillary gingiva, PDL and alveolar bone is by these three arteries.
What are the anterior and posterior alveolar arteries, the infraorbital artery, and the greater palatine artery?
The Cranial Nerve V3 exits through this area to go to the lower face providing sensory and motor innervations.
What is the foramen ovale?
Thin layer of hard, mineralized connective tissue that anchors the ends of the periodontal ligament fibers to the tooth so the tooth stays in its socket. Protects the dentin of the root, seals the ends of the dentinal tubules. Is more resistant to resorption than bone.
What is cementum?
The unattached portion of the gingiva that surrounds the tooth in the region of the CEJ.
Is coronal to the CEJ, surrounds the tooth like a turtleneck, and is attached to the tooth by the junctional epithelium.
AKA: unattached gingiva or the marginal gingiva.
What is the free gingiva?
The CELL that is responsible for the pigmentation of attached gingiva.
What is melanocytes?
The layer of compact bone that forms the hard outer wall of the mandible and maxilla on facial and lingual aspects. Thinner in incisor, canine and premolar regions. Does not show up on xrays.
What is the cortical bone?
The vascular supply to the teeth and periodontal tissues is by these two major arteries.
What are the inferior alveolar artery and the superior alveolar artery?
This gets its innervation from the superior alveolar nerves, infraorbital nerve, and the greater palatine and nasopalatine nerves.
What is the maxillary gingiva?
Surrounds and supports the roots of the tooth.
What is the Alveolar Bone?
The tissue of the free gingiva meets the tooth in a thin rounded edge that follows the contours of the teeth, creating a scalloped outline around them.
What is the gingival margin?
The surface texture of the attached gingiva has this appearnace when it is healthy.
What is stippled or stippling?
The lattice like bone that fills interior portion of the alveolar process (between cortical bone and alveolar bone proper). Found mostly interproximally. Supports the alveolar bone proper around the tooth.
What is the cancellous bone (or spongy bone)?
The branches of the supraperiosteal blood vessels located in the connective tissue beneath the free and attached gingiva.
What is the subepithelial plexus?
These gets their innervation from the inferior alveolar nerve.
What are the mandibular teeth and PDL?
This allows the gingival tissue to withstand the mechanical forces created during mastication, speaking and toothbrushing. Also prevents the free gingiva from being pulled away apically from the tooth when tension is applied to the alveolar mucosa.
What is the attached gingiva?
The shallow linear depression that separates the free and attached gingiva (rarely visible to the naked eye).
What is the free gingival groove?
The valley like depression in the portion of the interdental gingiva that lies directly apical to the contact area of two adjacent teeth. Also connects the facial and lingual papillae. It does NOT exist if the teeth are not in contact.
What is the gingival col?
The layer of connective soft tissue that covers the outer surface of bone. Has an outer layer of collagenous tissue and an inner layer of fine elastic fibers.
What is the periosteum?
The terminal branches of the intraseptal artery that penetrates the tooth socket and enters the PDL space where they anastomose with the blood vessels from the aveolar bone and PDL.
What are the Rami perforantes?