Role of attrition and occlusal contact in the physiology of the rat incisor: XL Kinetics of inner enamel epithelium during severely impeded eruption.

Under conditions of high impediment, the rate of eruption of the rat incisor decreases considerably as does the rate of cell production of the inner enamel epithelium (IEE). The latter is acomplished by a decrease in the size of the proliferative compartment and an increase in the generation time. A linear relation exists between IEE cell production and tooth eruption, and cell production can be estimated from eruption measurements.