Suitability of Human, Bovine, Equine, and Ovine Tooth Enamel for Studies of Artificial Bacterial Carious Lesions

Abstract

The progress of artificial caries-like lesions created in human, bovine, equine, and ovine enamel has been studied. Lesions were produced by exposure to an acid gel system or by 5-day exposure to a sequential batch culture technique using Streptococcus mutans NCTC 10832. Longitudinal ground sections were prepared. The lesions were of similar appearance in all species when examined in polarized light. The depth in human enamel was approximately half that in the animal species. Microradiography confirmed subsurface demineralization in all four species. Similar depth ratios were seen in the scanning electron microscope, but there were structural differences between lesions in human and animal teeth. Lesions in bovine teeth were more like those in human, but lesions in equine and ovine teeth were markedly different. Substitution of these animal enamels for human enamel in caries experiments demands that these differences be taken into account. Scanning electron microscopy is capable of resolving features in artificial caries lesions which cannot be differentiated by polarized light techniques. The latter will demonstrate generalized mineral loss, but scanning electron microscopy is required to characterize the sites of mineral loss.

Viability of using enamel and dentin from bovine origin as a substitute for human counterparts in an intraoral erosion model

“…However, bovine and human enamel differ in some aspects: i) the latter has a keyhole arrangement of the prisms, while inter-row sheets or lamellar sheets tend to occur in the ungulates (6); ii) crystallites of bovine enamel are 1.7 times thicker (7); iii) bovine teeth have a wider interprismatic region (8).…”

Fluoride dose-response of human and bovine enamel artificial caries lesions under pH-cycling conditions

“…Similar radio-densities were reported [11], and a subsequent study [12] showed not only a greater presence of interprismatic substance but also "fibril-like" structures around prisms in BE. Greater porosity, solubility and presence of interprismatic enamel would suggest that lesions progress faster in BE than HE, which, in deed, has been reported by many researchers [2,[13][14][15][16][17], although relative differences varied considerably between laboratories, highlighting that biological variation within tissues should not be overlooked and especially in larger studies [2]. However, little is known about potential differences in the tissues' susceptibility to fluoride and remineralization.…”

Bovine teeth as substitute for human teeth in dental research: a review of literature

“…Common examples are primate (5), bovine (6), swine (7,8), equine (9), and shark teeth (10). However, bovine teeth have been the most widely used substitute for human teeth in dental studies and their use has dramatically increased in the last 30 years.…”