Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Dental Record, Vol. 2 Of the four typical modes of attachment of teeth, the method of insertion in sockets, or gomphosis, attains in all extant orders of Mammalia possessing true teeth, except in some Cetaceans. This form of attachment also exists in Crocodilia, and with the rostral teeth of Pristis. On this occasion the consideration of the general subject of the attachment of teeth is confined to the limited zoological area of man, an aspect of the question which immediately concerns the dentist, and the correspondent, "Student." Though in this article there may not be stated anything that is not already known, yet, if it amount to only a reiteration of structural and physiological facts, with their bearing on certain of the more common pathological conditions, some useful purpose may be served. The Alveolar-Dental Membrane, or Dental Periosteum, is the membrane which fixes the tooth to the walls of the socket. In structure it consists of four elements - fibrous tissues, cells, blood vessels, and nerves. The Fibrous tissue is more or less dense, tough, and of the white fibrous (connective tissue) variety. Very little yellow elastic tissue is to be found, and, those modified connective elements, fat cells, are not regarded as entering into its structure. The fibrous tissue is thicker at the neck of a tooth than it is at the deeper parts of the socket. It runs obliquely from the bone of the alveolus to the cementum of the tooth; and, in all the longitudinal sections that I have examined, this obliquity is more pronounced in a direction from the bone towards the apex of the root. Therefore, the teeth of the lower jaw may be said to hang in their sockets, but with regard to those of the upper jaw, though the fibres pursue a similar course, the principles of gravitation preclude the use of the same simile. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.