Examination of periodontal tissues by a cutting-grinding technique.

The decalcification process removes the mineralized part of the dental hard tissues, making the histologic examination of enamel-associated tissues less than optimal. The cutting-grinding technique allows preparation of histologic slides with well preserved dental hard tissues together with their surrounding soft tissue components. In this paper, the histologic appearances of undecalcified teeth and their associated periodontal tissues prepared using the cutting-grinding technique are described.