Structure and mechanical properties of the soft zone separating bulk dentin and enamel in crowns of human teeth: Insight into tooth function

Maturational changes in dentin mineral properties

“…The mineral content decrease observed in the present study is much steeper than could be explained by the difference in the relative density of peritubular dentin alone, supporting the distinct nature of mantle dentin. The width of the mantle dentin zone (based here on its distinct mineral properties relative to the rest of dentin) has been a subject of controversy in addition to debate about its relative mineral and matrix content [7,[25][26]. In our results, mantle dentin in bovine incisors was represented by an 80-100μm wide strip, in agreement with earlier data [5].…”

“…It has to be kept in mind that the present results could be expected to differ to a certain extent for the lingual aspect. On a biomechanics level, properties such as the elastic modulus of dentin can be very different between the two locations [7].…”

“…The same results also indicated that shortly after circumpulpal dentin was formed there was less mineral in mantle compared to circumpulpal level. A part of the observed variability in mineral density and the reported variation in mechanical properties as a function of location [11,13,22] is attributable to thinning of the peritubular dentin [7] and the decrease of dentinal tubule density [6,14,[23][24] that occurs progressively away from the pulp. Peritubular dentin is hypermineralized with respect to intertubular dentin, with differences in the estimated mineral content reported ranging from 9% to 40% [23][24].…”

“…In dentin such studies are limited [2][3][4][5], due to the lack of an appropriate model. The extensive anatomical variability [6][7] and a location-dependent variability in mineral properties, shown by spectroscopic, x-ray and biomechanical methods [7][8][9][10][11] also make interpretation of dentin mineral maturation data difficult. The combination of a high resolution spectroscopic imaging method and a fetal developing calf incisor model has been previously shown to be suitable [5].…”

Measurement of the Mechanical Properties of Bone: A Recent History

“…Another method is interferometry (ESPI, or electronic speckle pattern interferometry). This can measure extremely small displacements, but at the moment suffers from considerable noise, so statistical techniques must be used to determine strains [63].…”