Systematic Description of Early Enamel Caries and Demonstration of Mechanism

Abstract

Teeth with early caries were chosen from those extracted in a clinic and from cadavers in a morgue. Serial ground sections were prepared and examined in reflected ordinary and in transmitted ordinary and polarized light. Some teeth were treated in other ways (by imbibition with various fluids, impregnation with mercury sulfide, etc.). The systematic examination indicated that the vast majority of observed changes were identical with those produced in vitro under specified chemical conditions though the changes were modified in the clinical lesions by the surface configuration of the enamel and by impregnation with pigment. The biochemical mechanism of the carious process as it occurs in the large majority of early lesions of the enamel is demonstrated.