Analysis of Dental Enamel Topography

One of the fields of active research in dentistry today is biomaterials replacing, which is expected to be increasingly more similar to human dental enamel. As these dental materials are exposed to the diverse degrading actions present in the oral environment, it is important to know its superficial topography, which is related to the existence of asperities on a smaller scale, responsible for the interaction between opposing bodies. In this work we try to characterize the superficial topography of the dental enamel and evaluating a sane tooth and another degraded by use, comparing the values of the texture SEM. The results indicate that the dental enamel presents a topographical profile with a symmetrical distribution, between peaks and valleys, relative to the parameters of amplitudes as well as to parameters of material concentrations. The values encountered for the amplitude and densities of peaks parameters are high. It was verified in the degraded tooth the existence of mechanisms of mechanical origin added to chemical reactions, producing a wear type called “chemical wear”. The existence of this phenomenon was identified by verification in the degraded tooth of the presence of more deep valleys in relation to the peaks. The abrasion mechanism, also present in this wear type, decreased significantly the amplitude of the peaks. The evaluation methodology via profilometry3D revealed potentially efficient for the characterization of superficial topography and by verification of the mechanisms of wear dental.