The effect of ovariectomy on the healing tooth socket of the rat

Under general anaesthesia, 35-day-old female rats were ovariectomized and the right maxillary molar teeth removed. Dynamic measures of alveolar bone formation were determined at 10 days after surgery, using the fluorochrome labelling technique, and compared with control animals. Ovariectomy significantly increased buccal resorption and palatal bone formation. In a second experiment, ovariectomized rats had the right maxillary molar teeth extracted and were killed at either 5 or 14 days after surgery. The mean mineralizing surface of the alveolar bone (percentage of surfaces occupied by a double fluorescent label) was significantly lower in rats killed at either 5 or 10 days than at 14 days after ovariectomy and tooth extraction. The mean appositional rate was significantly greater at 5 days after ovariectomy and tooth extraction than at 10 or 14 days. Oestrogen deficiency can therefore affect alveolar bone turnover following tooth extraction.