Relation of the Alveolus to the Cemento-enamel Junction following Attritional Wear in Aboriginal Skulls: An Enquiry into the Normality of Cementum Exposure with Aging

With tooth attrition, the height of the alveolar crest does not increase to keep pace with active tooth eruption and the cemento-enamel junction-alveolar crest distance increases slightly with age in aboriginal skulls. But there is no atrophy of the alveolar bony margin. Some decrease in interalveolar height does occur. This does not necessarily mean that passive eruption with exposure of cementum is normal. Rather it is postulated that the epithelial attachment proliferates onto cementum, inhibiting alveolar crest addition, while the base of the gingival sulcus remains at the cemento-enamel junction. During the course of this investigation, it was found that the distance between the cemento-enamel junction and alveolar crest increased more rapidly with advancing wear in the lower molar region than in the upper. In the lower first molar region, the lingual distance was significantly greater than that between cemento-enamel junction and alveolar crest on the buccal aspect during each stage of wear. The size of the tooth, as reflected in the robustness index, had no influence on the processes or rate of active eruption, bone deposition at the alveolar crest, or measurements taken between cemento-enamel junction and alveolar crest.