Effect of experimental microglossia on craniofacial growth

The present experiment provides data on the morphogenetic effects of experimentally produced microglossia (by glossectomy) on the maxillofacial skeleton of the rat. Nineteen males and nineteen females subjected to this surgical procedure were compared, using an analysis of variance, with an equal number (thirty-eight) of nonoperated littermates of both sexes, which served as a control group. The surgical procedures were performed on the animals when they were 21 days old. They were killed 64 days later, at the age of 12 weeks, or at the end of the growing period. It was demonstrated that the activity of different proliferating maxillofacial sites was significantly reduced (p less than 0.01 and 0.001) in all three dimensions. This affected both the basal and alveolar bones at the same time.