Polarizing Microscopy of Sound Enamel

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Abstract
Tangential sections cut from six sound human premolars were imbibed in water, air and Thoulet solution, in order to investigate the influence of form birefringence, intrinsic birefringence and crystallite orientation on total birefringence. Quantitative microradiographic and scanning electron microscopic techniques were used to obtain information about the volume percentage mineral and the direction of the prisms. The results indicate that there is a positive linear correlation between the mean total birefingence and the mean volume percentage mineral occiusally. In the cervical area there is no such correlation and the influence of the prism direction is more marked. The range of the total birefringence values is lower than normal due to the influence of the prism direction in these tangentially cut sections.

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