Translucent dentine: microradiography X stereomicroscopy (more cases)

DENTINE ASPECT UNDER STEREOMICROSCOPY IS AMBIGUOUS REGARDING DENTINE MINERAL CONTENT

De Sousa, Frederico Barbosa

Dept. of Morphology, Health Sciences Center, Federal University of Paraiba, Joao Pessoa, Paraiba, Brazil  

 Translucent dentine (dentine aspect under stereo microscopy, SM) plays and important role in the histopathology of carious lesions. Translucent dentine is commonly regarded as an aspect of sclerotic (hypermineralized dentine). In fact, translucent dentine is ambiguous: it can be either hyper or hypomineralized dentine. Here, new cases of translucent dentine that represent demineralized dentine under microradiography (mRX) are presented. The use of SM as a gold standard technique for measuring caries lesion depth in dentine lacks sientific validity. 

Fig.1. mRX (upper) and SM images of dentine area (white arrow) that appears as translucent under SM.

Fig.2. Two dentine aspects of dentine under SM (white, translucent, and black arrows, "normal" dentine) are shown as demineralized areas under mRX.