Abstract
Since bovine teeth have been used as substitutes for human teeth in in vitro dental studies, the aim of this study was to compare the radiographic density of bovine teeth with that of human teeth to evaluate their usability for radiographic studies. Thirty bovine and twenty human teeth were cut transversally in 1 millimeter-thick slices. The slices were X-rayed using a digital radiographic system and an intraoral X-ray machine at 65 kVp and 7 mA. The exposure time (0.08 s) and the target-sensor distance (40 cm) were standardized for all the radiographs. The radiographic densities of the enamel, coronal dentin and radicular dentin of each slice were obtained separately using the 'histogram' tool of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 software. The mean radiographic densities of the enamel, coronal dentin and radicular dentin were calculated by the arithmetic mean of the slices of each tooth. One-way ANOVA demonstrated statistically significant differences for the densities of bovine and human enamel (p < 0.05) and for bovine and human coronal dentin (p < 0.05). No statistically significant differences were found for the bovine and human radicular dentin (p > 0.05). Based on the results, the authors concluded that: a) the radiographic density of bovine enamel is significantly higher than that of human enamel; b) the radiodensity of bovine coronal dentin is statistically lower than the radiodensity of human coronal dentin; bovine radicular dentin is also less radiodense than human radicular dentin, although this difference was not statistically significant; c) bovine teeth should be used with care in radiographic in vitro studies.
Highlights
Animal teeth have been used in several in vitro studies recently
Human dentin is composed of 70% of inorganic material, 18% of organic material and 12% of water
Because of the difference of the microstructures of human and bovine teeth, and because of the differences of the results observed by studies using human or bovine teeth, the aim of the present study was to compare the radiographic density of the enamel and dentin of human teeth and bovine teeth and evaluate their usability in radiographic in vitro studies
Summary
Animal teeth have been used in several in vitro studies recently. Human dentin is composed of 70% of inorganic material, 18% of organic material and 12% of water. Its structural unit includes peri- and intertubular mineralized matrix, the content of the dentin tubules (the odontoblastic prolongations) and the organic material of the periodontoblastic space. The dentin mass of young teeth has a quite uniform degree of mineralization. The enamel-dentin surface, the interglobular dentin and the pulpar dentin are less mineralized. More than 90% of the organic material of dentin is collagen, distributed in a uniform pattern over the dentin. The mantle dentin and the pre-dentin seem to contain more organic components than the body of the dentin. The main mass of organic material is uniformly distributed in the intertubular matrix.[2]
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