Production of cerium-apatite in sound and carious dental enamel under in vitro conditions.

Incipient dental caries--according to up-to-date concepts in dental research--means a demineralization without cavity formation. At this stage the carious process is reversible, and remineralization can be achieved in the presence of locally applied fluorides. In chrystalchemical experiments, however, by treating natural apatites with lanthanides, [Ce, La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb ... Y, Sc] a more resistant complex could be developed. In this study extracted human molar teeth were kept for 60 days in Cerium (III)-nitrate solution, in order to investigate the incorporation of Ce3+ into human sound and carious enamel by light-microscopic-, and electron microprobe methods. Ce3+ was incorporated in sound enamel as well as into the incipient carious lesion, showing the histological characteristics of a remineralizing lesion. The mean values of the microprobe analysis data showed an increase in Ce3+ changing place with the Ca2+ the developing cerium-apatite being more hard and resistant from a mineralophysical point of view.