[The lateral dental lamina and the enamel niche. 6th and last paper on the embryology of human teeth].

Up to the cap-stage the lateral enamel strand extends from the dental lamina to the tip of the tongue-like projection of the enamel organ, forming there a swelling. It does not reach the free margin of the enamel organ at the bell-stage. The lateral enamel strand gradually becomes smaller in regard to the tooth germ, changing its relative position to the mesial half of the latter, and finally degenerates. In the molar germ, as the epithelial tongue-like projection at the cap-stage increases in length to become an interradical process, the lateral enamel strand extends as a crest on the buccal interradical process. The direction of the lateral enamel strand is inverse in the maxillary molar germs.