MORPHOLOGICAL AND STRUCTURAL-CHANGES OF THE MANDIBLE IN THE POSTNATALLIFE

The lower jaw undergoes throughout the postnatal life progressive and regressive changes depending substantially on the decidual and permane nt dentition, and on the loss of teeth. These changes concern the mand ibular angle, the muscular and articular processes, the relation of th e ramus to the mandibular corpus and the appearence or disappearence o f the tuberositates massetericae and pterygoideae. The structural chan ges follow pari passu the morphological changes. The extremely delicat e honeycomb bone structure becomes after birth stronger due to dentiti on, mastication and grinding resulting in a strong construction in adu lts. In regressive changes especially after teeth loss the spongiosa p artly disappears and intertrabecular spaces become larger. The segment s that play a role after teeth loss become reinforced.