Nerve Endings in Gingival Tissue

In man the gingiva is a form of transitional mucous membrane, and its sensory capacity and sensory topography are of great interest to both clinician and patient. Previous in-vestigations of the innervation of the gin-giva have produced between fifteen and twenty descriptive terms for gingival nerve endings. A few investigators have concluded that the gingiva has relatively few nerves, while others have emphasized a rich inner-vation. A number of reviews of the litera-ture on gingival innervation have been made and these disparate views have not been reconciled. One hypothesis states that a specific rela-tionship exists between modalities of sensa-tion, such as pain, temperature, and touch, and certain characteristic nerve endings. In recent years, the work of Weddell, Palmer, and Palliet and Winkelmann2-5 has shown that there is no specific feature that will distinguish a nerve ending in its capacity to perceive a specific sensation. This work has demonstrated that all the separate endings recognized in human skin are capable of perceiving the same sensation and, con-versely, that the dermal nerve network is similarly capable of perceiving all the sen-sations that may be perceived.i I The mu-cocutaneous end organ, the Meissner cor-puscle, and the Vater-Pacini corpuscle are the only specialized endings present in man, and these are found in specialized regions of hairless skin. Over the broad surface of the body, sensation is perceived by the dermal nerve networks and the hair-follicle nerve networks. Information about the nerve end