Volume change in the growing canine mandible measured by intra-vital fluorescent dye three-dimensional reconstruction

A reconstruction method was employed to study the relative contributions of bone deposition and resorption to the overall growth of an individual bone. Total bone volume and incremental bone volume were measured for 24 mandibles spanning an age range from 22 to 211 days. No obvious relationship was demonstrated between the overall rate of bone formation and age; however, the rate of bone formation per unit volume of the jaw conformed to an exponential curve. The rate of increase in bone volume fell to nearly zero over the experimental period, whilst the rate of new bone addition levelled out at 12-13 mm3/cm3 per day. Thus there was significant bone remodelling after adult size was reached.