Deposition of cellular cementum onto hypoplastic enamel of fluorotic teeth in wild boars (Sus scrofa L.)

Abstract

The nature of deposits present in hypoplastic defects of fluorotic enamel of wild boar teeth was studied by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The fluorotic enamel showed different developmental abnormalities, denoting a severe disturbance of ameloblast function during the secretory stage of amelogenesis. These abnormalities included the occurrence of grossly accentuated incremental lines with associated zones of aprismatic enamel and the presence of different forms of hypoplastic defects. Two types of deposits were present on the hypoplastic enamel: cellular cementum and posteruptively acquired, presumably partially mineralized dental plaque. Coronal cementum is not normally formed in pig teeth. Presence of this tissue in fluorotic teeth of wild boars is seen as indicative of a premature disintegration of the enamel epithelium prior to the completion of amelogenesis. This was supposed to have resulted in a contact of mesenchymal cells of the dental follicle with the surface of the immature enamel and, in consequence, in a differentiation of these cells into cementoblasts. To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the formation of coronal cementum as part of the spectrum of pathological changes in fluorotic teeth in a species whose tooth crowns are normally free of cementum.