Micron-scale crack propagation in laser-irradiated enamel and dentine studied with nano-CT

Aljdaimi, A., Devlin, H., Dickinson, M., Burnett, T. and Slater, T.J.A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0372-1551 2019. Micron-scale crack propagation in laser-irradiated enamel and dentine studied with nano-CT. Clinical Oral Investigations 23 (5) , pp. 2279-2285. 10.1007/s00784-018-2654-0

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB)

Abstract

Objectives The aim of this study was to see the effect of Er:YAG laser irradiation in dentine and compare this with its effect in enamel. The mechanism of crack propagation in dentine was emphasised and its clinical implications were discussed. Materials and methods Coronal sections of sound enamel and dentine were machined to 50-μm thickness using a FEI-Helios Plasma (FIB). The specimen was irradiated for 30 s with 2.94-μm Er:YAG laser radiation in a moist environment, using a sapphire dental probe tip, with the tip positioned 2 mm away from the sample surface. One of the sections was analysed as a control and not irradiated. Samples were analysed using the Zeiss Xradia 810 Ultra, which allows high spatial resolution, nanoscale 3D imaging using X-ray computed tomography (CT). Results Dentine: In the peritubular dentine, micro-cracks ran parallel to the tubules whereas in the inter-tubular region, the cracks ran orthogonal to the dentinal tubules. These cracks extended to a mean depth of approximately 10 μm below the surface. On the dentine surface, there was preferential ablation of the less mineralised intertubular dentine, and this resulted in an irregular topography associated with tubules. Enamel: The irradiated enamel surface showed a characteristic ‘rough’ morphology suggesting some preferential ablation along certain microstructure directions. There appears to be very little subsurface damage, with the prismatic structure remaining intact. Conclusions A possible mechanism is that laser radiation is transmitted down the dentinal tubules causing micro-cracks to form in the dentinal tubule walls that tend to be limited to this region. Clinical relevance Crack might be a source of fracture as it represents a weak point and subsequently might lead to a failure in restorative dentistry.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Chemistry
Additional Information:	his article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Publisher:	Springer
ISBN:	14363771 14326981
ISSN:	1432-6981
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 February 2022
Date of Acceptance:	20 September 2018
Last Modified:	23 May 2023 23:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/147162

Citation Data

Cited 12 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item