The mandibular nerve in edentulous jaw humans: analysis of myelinated nerve fibers.

We studied the nerve fibers of the human mandibular nerve using edentulous jaw cadavers. We made nitrocellulose sections and stained them with Goto's modification of Masson-Goldner's method in order to evaluate the nerve fibers using an image-analyzer. The results showed an unusual feature: a sudden increase of axonal areas during the decade of the 80s followed by a sharp return to previous levels after that age, even though the number of nerve fibers kept decreasing with the aging process. Although the reason for this is not yet understood, the authors consider that it might be due to compensatory phenomena.