NIDCR Digital Library

The medication, denosumab, is the first to reduce bone-weakening process in patients with fibrous dysplasia. Bone scans of a patient before (left) and after (right) a six-month treatment show reduced turnover within fibrous dysplasia lesions (dark-colored patches). 

The images (1-3) depict the cell-to-cell translocation of P. gingivalis through host actin fibers after 1 day post-infection in human primary gingival epithelial cells using fluorescence microscopy.

Yeast cells of Candida glabrata (green) adhere to Candida albicans hyphae (red) both in static culture (left, scanning electron microscopy) and under biofilm conditions of flow (right, confocal fluorescence microscopy).

NIDCR researchers catalogued functions and subtypes of the four main categories of oral mucosal cells, including epithelial (white), endothelial (cyan), stromal (yellow), and immune cells (pink), as shown in this photo of buccal (cheek) tissue from a healthy volunteer.

Fibrous Dysplasia/McCune Albright Syndrome (FD/MAS) is a rare disorder of the skeleton, skin, and endocrine system. FD/MAS bone lesions can cause the skeleton to expand, as shown in this 3D rendering of a patient’s skull. 

Stem cells, which can transform into other cell types, raised early hopes that they might revolutionize repair of teeth and oral tissues, and possibly lead to new therapies for diabetes, heart disease, and neural conditions.

Organization of human salivary stem/progenitor cells (hS/PCs) expressing scribble (red) and β1 integrin (green) in our 3D culture system is a critical step in our mission to assist in the relief of xerostomia, or dry mouth, in head and neck cancer patients who have received radiation treatment.

Taste buds on the tongue with permeated red-labelled nano-particles.

Sensory nerve marker CGRP staining (green) of the inferior alveolar nerve in adult mouse incisors.

NIDCR and NCCIH researchers developed an novel strategy or classifying neurons: single cell RNA-sequencing, which defines neurons according to the expression of hundreds of genes, and in vivo functional imaging, which characterizes groups of neurons according to their activity.