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Nanoscale Correlation of Structure and Mechanical Properties of a Human Tooth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Hanson Fong
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, SeattleWA98195, USA
Mehmet Sarikaya
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, SeattleWA98195, USA
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Extract

The human tooth is a functionally-gradient structural composite material composed of collagen and hydroxyapatite (HAP). The outer most region is a hard enamel layer consisting primarily of HAP. Underneath is dentin region, which is composed of HAP with a significant fraction of collagen fibers. It has been demonstrated that it is possible to perform nano-indentation on sub-micron regions of tooth using either a standard nanoindentor or modified cantilever type atomic force microscope tip (AFM). In this study, we report nano-mechanical properties of dentin and enamel regions of a human tooth, measured with a nanoindentor attached to an AFM using a vertical force, in correlation with the microstructures observed with TEM.

TEM and nano-indentation samples were prepared from a juvenile human incisor tooth. The tooth was first sectioned into 1 mm thick slices along its length, each containing both dentin and enamel regions. A slice was taken to prepare a TEM sample and an adjacent slice was used for nano-indentation measurements.

Type
Biomaterials
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

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3. This work was supported by an AASERT via ARO.Google Scholar