Dental pulp exposure, periapical inflammation and suppurative osteomyelitis of the jaws in juvenile Baltic grey seals (Halichoerus grypus grypus) from the late 19th century.

ABSTRACT: The systematic analysis of museum collections can provide important insights into the dental and skeletal pathology of wild mammals. Here we present a previously unreported type of dental defect and related skull pathology in five juvenile Baltic grey seals that had been collected in the course of a seal culling program along the Danish coast in 1889 and 1890. All five skulls exhibited openings into the pulp cavities at the crown tips of all (four animals) or two (one animal) canines as well as several incisors and (in one animal) also some anterior premolars. The affected teeth showed wide pulp cavities and thin dentin. Pulp exposure had caused infection, inflammation, and finally necrosis of the pulp. As was evidenced by the extensive radiolucency around the roots of the affected teeth,

SUBMITTER: Kierdorf U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6461278 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature