[Vivisection studies on the effects of unilateral tooth extraction on growth of the skull and masticatory musculature. I. Overall skull, orbita, zygomatic arch, rear skull (author's transl)].

Skull growth is affected by numerous factors, including dentition. Animal experiments have assumed considerable importance in connection with such studies. This series of publications deals with the response of the skull skeleton and masticatory muscles to extraction of each emerging tooth in the right half of the jaws of Vietnamese belly pigs. The animals were slaughtered at various ages ranging from 6 to 12 months, throughout an important phase of post-natal skull development. Biomathematical methods were used to analyse the macerated skull and the masticatory musculature. Linear differential equations have proved useful for describing growth processes. The 1st report deals with the distances measured for the overall and rear skull, the orbita and the zygomatic arch. Differences between the right and left sides are slight with respect to these distances. Significant differences were found only in the range of the front part of the zygomatic arch during the 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th and 12th month of life.