Enamel mineral density

In coronal caries, the enamel of the tooth crown is affected. With lasting caries, the lesion deepens and acquires a conical shape. In polarized light microscopy, zones with different mineral densities can be distinguished, such as the lesion body and the mineralized surface layer... 

Fig. 3. Mean mineral density profiles of two artificial caries lesions. Mineralisation, as a percentage of sound enamel, assumed to be 87% mineral by volume, is expressed as a function of depth into the lesion. The two mineral distributions are clearly different but the amount of mineral loss is almost identical in each case. In the text, the terms shallow and deep refer to lesion depth, whereas the terms small lesion and Targe lesion refer to amount of mineral loss, regardless of depth. The heavy line represents a lesion with a high R parameter and the lighter line, a lesion with a lower R parameter (see 4.6).

Huang, T.T., He, L.H., DarendelQer, M.A., Swain, M.V. Correlation of mineral density and elastic modulus of natural enamel white spot lesions using X-ray microtomography and nanoindentation. Acta Biomater. 6, 4553-4559 (2010)... 

Although adsorbed carbonates on bone mineral and dentine can be easily removed by routine cleaning pre-treatment, the diagenetic fraction has proved more difficult and controversial. Attempts have been made to use sequential acid washing and density separation for bone, as described above, but, at present, the results are rather ambiguous. The carbonate fraction of dental enamel, however, has proved much more amenable, and significant progress... 

Table 3 Bulk composition, density and crystallite size of mineral in bone, dentine, enamel, and the composition of...

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, the very large surface area of the crystals in bone makes it very problematical to try to determine the unit cell contents from the chemical composition of the mineral. With the much smaller surface area of the crystals in enamel, it is much more feasible and several formulae have been published (Elliott 1997). As the density of enamel apatite is not known, the absolute contents cannot be determined, so it is usually assumed that the number of ions in the phosphate sites... 

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