Experimental tooth ankylosis in the monkey.

In this small study, radiographs and study casts were made of three Cynamoglus monkeys with deciduous dentitions. Roots were traumatized with a chrome-steel crown in hyperocclusion, and by exposing root surfaces surgically and traumatizing with a rotating bur or chemical irritants. Histologic studies revealed scalloping resorption of cementum but no evidence of ankylosis. However, when a maxillary deciduous incisor was luxated by forceps, block sections taken four weeks after the injury revealed areas of bone in close apposition to cementum. This last type of injury would seem to be one mechanism for producing dental ankylosis in the monkey.