New Artefacts For Old: An Alternative Method of Preparing Hard and Soft Tissue Interfaces of Developing Enamel

¹ Department of Dental Anatomy, School of Dental Medicine, 2-1-3 Tsurumi, Tsurumi-Ku, Yokohama, Japan
² Department of Science in Relation to Dentistry, Prince Philip Dental Hospital, 34, Hospital Rd., Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong

Serial sections (each from 150 to 200 µm thick) of porcine molar tooth germs within their bony crypts, rodent incisor teeth (in situ), and human extracted teeth were cut with a thin rotating diamondimpregnated disc, without prior embedding. Some specimens were cut unfixed, at room temperature (21 °C) or frozen (-70°C), some in fixative, and others cut after fixation. A variety of routine fixatives has been tried, and in general the preservation of hard/soft tissue interfaces is best achieved when fixation precedes cutting. Several histological and histochemical methods have also been tried successfully. The damaged surface layers of the specimens brought about by the cutting disc can be removed after staining, if the section is embedded in a thin sheet of Epon and then thinned by being polished. The method provides a novel way of studying hard/soft tissue junctions.

Note:

The authors wish to acknowledge with gratitude the valuable technical assistance of Mr. K. Inoue, Mr. Y. Shimanuki, Mr. T. Kawamoto, Miss T. Watanabe, and Miss J. Fearnhead.