Tooth Enamel Structure and Composition Revealed in 3-D Nanoscale Maps

Using nanoscale technology, researchers have, for the first time, produced detailed 3-D maps of the composition and arrangement of mature human tooth enamel. The maps demonstrate the position of atoms critical to the process of tooth decay.
The new analyze makes detailed information about important trace ions in the tough arrangement of tooth enamel.The team of material and arrangement engineers and dentists- from the University of Sydney in Australia- produced the 3-D maps applying a relatively new microscopy technique called atom probe tomography.

The researchers describe their work in a newspaper published in the journal Science Advances and suggest it should help improve oral hygiene and to prevent caries or tooth decay.

According to the World Health Organization( WHO ), 60-90 percent of schoolchildren and virtually 100 percentage of adults worldwide have dental cavities, which result via the progressive dissolving of dental enamel.

Human dental enamel is the hardest tissue in the body. It protects teeth from the wear and tear of daily grinding and munching as well as from chemical attack.

Scientists have already established that the mechanical strength and resistance to fatigue of dental enamel comes from its complex hierarchical arrangement of sporadically organized bundles of hydroxyapatite( HAP) nanowires.
Potential for new treatments to protect tooth enamel

The new analyze makes detailed information about important trace ions in the tough arrangement of tooth enamel.

Fast realities about tooth decay

Rates of tooth decay have fallen significantly in the United States over the last 40 times, except in young children, where they have recently started rising again 42 percentage of U.S. children aged 2-11 have decay in their primary teeth 92 percent of U.S. adults aged 20-64 have had tooth decay in their permanent teeth; 26 percentage have untreated decay.

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