The gingiva

Gingiva

The gingiva , or gums, consists of the mucosal tissue that lies over the mandible and maxilla inside the mouth.-General description:...

 often possess a textured surface that is referred to as being stippled (engraved points). 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. "The degree of keratinization and the prominence of stippling appear to be related." To be more specific, stippling occurs at sites of fusion of the epithelial ridges (also known as rete pegs

Rete pegs

Rete pegs are the epithelial extensions that project into the underlying connective tissue.In the epithelium of the mouth, the attached gingiva exhibit rete pegs, while the sulcular and junctional epithelia do not....

) and correspond to the fusion of the valleys created by the connective tissue papillae.