Besnard Cyril, Marie Ali, Sasidharan Sisini, Harper Robert A, Marathe Shashidhara, Moffat Jonathan, Shelton Richard M, Landini Gabriel, Korsunsky Alexander M
MBLEM, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PJ, UK.
School of Dentistry, University of Birmingham, 5 Mill Pool Way, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7EG, UK.
Dent J (Basel). 2023 May 9;11(5):130. doi: 10.3390/dj11050130.
Caries is a chronic disease that causes the alteration of the structure of dental tissues by acid dissolution (in enamel, dentine and cementum) and proteolytic degradation (dentine and cementum) and generates an important cost of care. There is a need to visualise and characterise the acid dissolution process on enamel due to its hierarchical structure leading to complex structural modifications. The process starts at the enamel surface and progresses into depth, which necessitates the study of the internal enamel structure. Artificial demineralisation is usually employed to simulate the process experimentally. In the present study, the demineralisation of human enamel was studied using surface analysis carried out with atomic force microscopy as well as 3D internal analysis using synchrotron X-ray tomography during acid exposure with repeated scans to generate a time-lapse visualisation sequence. Two-dimensional analysis from projections and virtual slices and 3D analysis of the enamel mass provided details of tissue changes at the level of the rods and inter-rod substance. In addition to the visualisation of structural modifications, the rate of dissolution was determined, which demonstrated the feasibility and usefulness of these techniques. The temporal analysis of enamel demineralisation is not limited to dissolution and can be applied to other experimental conditions for the analysis of treated enamel or remineralisation.
龋齿是一种慢性疾病,它通过酸溶解(在牙釉质、牙本质和牙骨质中)和蛋白水解降解(牙本质和牙骨质)导致牙齿组织的结构改变,并产生高昂的治疗成本。由于牙釉质的层级结构会导致复杂的结构变化,因此有必要对牙釉质上的酸溶解过程进行可视化和表征。该过程从牙釉质表面开始并向深处发展,这就需要研究牙釉质的内部结构。人工脱矿通常用于通过实验模拟该过程。在本研究中,在酸暴露过程中通过重复扫描使用原子力显微镜进行表面分析以及同步加速器X射线断层扫描进行三维内部分析来研究人牙釉质的脱矿,以生成时间推移可视化序列。从投影和虚拟切片进行的二维分析以及牙釉质块的三维分析提供了棒状结构和柱间质水平的组织变化细节。除了可视化结构变化外,还确定了溶解速率,这证明了这些技术的可行性和实用性。牙釉质脱矿的时间分析不仅限于溶解,还可应用于其他实验条件,用于分析处理过的牙釉质或再矿化。