INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ORAL-MEDICAL SCIENCES

Vol. 7 No. 2      December - 2008

ISSN: 1347-9733      UBIC: 136-M

Abstract

Enamel prisms are a morphological feature and Hunter-Schreger bands are the main microstructure of mammalian tooth enamel. Subhyracodon is an extinct rhinocerotoid that inhabited North America in the Oligocene geologic period. The Hunter-Schreger bands of some rhinocerotoids run vertically along the axis of the tooth, and the boundary between bands is distinct in the tangential section. In our observation of Subhyracodon tooth enamel, vertical prism decussation along the tooth axis could be observed clearly in the inner three fourths of the enamel. In this study, the path of the prisms was digitized and reconstructed three-dimensionally. The course of each prism undulated strongly at the border of the bands, and the prisms did not maintain their relative relations but showed positional changes and displacement of adjacent Hunter-Schreger bands. Keywords: enamel prism, Hunter-Schreger bands, Subhyracodon, 3D reconstruction.

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