There has been rapid progress recently in the identification of signalling pathways regulating tooth development. It has become apparent that signalling networks involved in Drosophila development and development of mammalian organs such as the limb are also used in tooth development. Teeth are epithelial appendages formed in the oral region of vertebrates and their early developmental anatomy ...

Tooth morphogenesis is accompanied by apoptotic events which show restricted temporospatial patterns suggesting multiple roles in odontogenesis. Dental apoptosis seems to be caspase dependent and caspase-3 has been shown to be activated during dental apoptosis.Caspase-3 mutant mice on different genetic backgrounds were used to investigate alterations in dental apoptosis and molar tooth morphoge...

Tooth 16 showed a fractured mesial marginal ridge that was undermined by caries (Figure 1). Following the placement of a rubber dam, the tooth was prepared and a medium-sized Class-II cavity resulted (Figure 2). In order to achieve optimum adhesion to enamel, it is essential to prepare the enamel margins in such a way that the enamel prisms are obliquely cut. This entails bevelling of the verti...

Characterisation of the electrostatic properties of dental enamel is important for understanding the interfacial processes that occur on a tooth surface and how these relate to the natural ability of our teeth to withstand chemical attack from the acids in many soft drinks. Whereas, the role of the mineral component of the tooth enamel in providing this resistance to acid erosion has been studi...

THE hardness of enamel and dentin has been determined by a variety of methods including abrasion," 2 pendulum,' scratch,4-7 and indentation" teehnics. Since the hardness of enamel and dentin has been shown to have considerable local variations, the methods using a microscratch or microindentation have been preferred. One of the more common types is the Knoop diamond indenter14 which has been us...

Enamel thickness has figured prominently in discussions of hominid origins for nearly a century, although little is known about its intra-taxon variation. It has been suggested that enamel thickness increases from first to third molars, perhaps due to varying functional demands or developmental constraints, but this has not been tested with appropriate statistical methods. We quantified enamel ...

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Bonded porcelain veneers are widely used esthetic restorations. High success and survival rates have been reported, but failures do occur. Fractures are the commonest failure mode. Minimally invasive or thin veneers have gained popularity. Increased enamel and porcelain thickness improve the strength of veneers bonded to enamel, but less is known about dentin or mixed subst...

Tooth formation begins with the bud stage during which the dental lamina (derived from epithelial tissue) produces a series of tooth buds along its buccal margin. This is followed by the cap stage in which a coned structure, termed the enamel organ, is formed by an invagination of mesenchymal tissue into the tooth bud. All deciduous teeth and permanent molars are derived from the enamel organ o...

Tooth enamel is formed in a typical biomineralization process under the guidance of specific organic components. Amelotin (AMTN) is a recently identified, secreted protein that is transcribed predominantly during the maturation stage of enamel formation, but its protein expression profile throughout amelogenesis has not been described in detail. The main objective of this study was to define th...

Enamel is the most visible tissue of the tooth. It gives the tooth its whiteness, its brilliance and is the main focus of our attention from an esthetic point of view. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to see alterations in this enamel, whether they are simple localized discolored spots, or more extensive loss of tooth substance. The etiologies, then, are multiple: toxicity during the mineraliz...