View source for Stippling (dentistry)

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==Overview==
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[[Image:Stippled gingiva.JPG|400px|thumb|left|Photograph of the upper left quandrant, showing teeth #4-8, with a [[Commonly used terms of relationship and comparison in dentistry|DO]] [[amalgam]] on #5.  The stippled surface texture of the attached [[gingiva]] can be observed.  Note how there is no stippling on the marginal gingiva, which is the [[millimeter]] or so of gingiva immediately adjacent to the [[tooth|teeth]].  Click on this photo to see the stippling in greater detail.]]
The [[gingiva]] often possess a textured surface that is referred to as being '''stippled'''.<ref>Carranza's Clinical Periodontology, 9th Ed., W.B. Saunders, 2002, page 30.</ref>  Stippling only presents on the attached gingiva bound to underlying [[alveolar bone]], not the freely moveable alveolar mucosa.  Stippling used to be thought to indicate health, but it has since been shown that smooth gingiva is not an indication of disease, unless it is smooth ''due to a loss'' of previously existing stippling.

Stippling is a consequence of the microscopic elevations and depressions of the surface of the gingival tissue due to the connective tissue projections within the tissue.<ref>Carranza's Clinical Periodontology, 9th Ed., W.B. Saunders, 2002, page 30.</ref>  "The degree of [[keratinization]] and the prominence of stippling appear to be related."<ref>Carranza's Clinical Periodontology, 9th Ed., W.B. Saunders, 2002, page 30.</ref>









==References==
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{{Periodontology}}

[[Category:Dentistry]]


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