The length and eruption rates of incisor teeth in rats after one or more of them had been unimpeded.

The eruption rate and length of all four incisor teeth in rats were measured under ether anaesthesia by recording the position of marks on their labial surfaces at 2-day intervals, using calibrated graticules in microscope eyepieces. The rats were divided into four groups and either a lower, an upper, both a lower and an upper, or no incisors were unimpeded. This paper describes the changes when the unimpeded incisors returned to the occlusion. Neither the unimpeded nor the impeded incisors simply returned to control values immediately the period of unimpeded eruption ended, but showed transient changes in their lengths and eruption rates. The results confirm that eruption rates are determined by the sum of the lengths of the lower and upper incisors, rather than by their own lengths, with longer teeth erupting more slowly. Specifically, restoring the bevel to the incisors did not slow their eruption below normal impeded rates. The slowing of the eruption of the longer of two adjacent incisors was related to the length differences of the incisors in the same jaw, not to the sum of the differences in both jaws. Contact with the contralateral incisor in the opposite jaw slowed the eruption of an incisor more than contact with the ipsilateral incisor.