The angular bone defect and its relationship to trauma from occlusion and downgrowth of subgingival plaque

Sixty-four sets of human teeth were collected with the aim of evaluating the role of trauma from occlusion in the etiology of destructive periodontal disease. Before the jaws were taken out, a careful bite analysis was carried out. After fixation of the jaws, impressions were taken and plaster of Paris models were made. Finally, a set of 14 radiographs were taken. On the basis of the "clinical" records postmortem, the study models and the radiographs, the jaws were sectioned. Only mesio-distal sections were included in the present analysis. The total number of interdental spaces examined was 106. The following observations were made: 1. Before any loss of periodontal fiber attachment has taken place, the configuration of the interdental septum is entirely dependent on the location of the cemento-enamel junction (CEJ) of the two neighboring teeth. The alveolar crest does not approach the apical border of the junctional epithelium closer than about 1 mm. Thus, if the CEJ is located at different levels on two neighboring teeth, the marginal termination of the interdental septum will be oblique, forming an acute angle with the "lowest" tooth. 2. Loss of periodontal fiber attachment could invariably be related to the apical growth of subgingival plaque, and downgrowth of plaque was always associated with an inflammatory process which involved lysis of the attachment fibers within a distance varying between 0.2 and 1.8 mm from the apical border of the plaque. Subsequently, the JE proliferated down to cover the denuded root surface. 3. Reduction in height of the alveolar crest could also be related to the downgrowth of plaque. The distance from plaque to bone was never found to be less than 0.5 mm and never more than 2.7 mm. The configuration of the interdental septum always seemed to be determined by the level of the plaque on the two neighboring tooth surfaces. Thus, if the plaque had reached the same level on both sides, the crest of the interdental septum assumed a horizontal outline; if plaque had proliferated down to different levels, the crest of the interdental septum was oblique and an angular defect hereby established. 4. In the present material no evidence was found to indicate that functional (traumatic) forces can act as a co-factor in the causation of angular defects. In fact, such defects were found equally often adjacent to "nontraumatized" as to "traumatized" teeth. 5. Infrabony pockets were invariably associated with downgrowth of subgingival plaque.