Enamel Cuticle and the Initial Attack of Dental CariesThe natural enamel caries, with no loss of substance, is covered with a cuticle. To find out whether this cuticle is a membrane which comes to be formed again in the mouth after the eventual destruction of a previous cuticle through the initial attack of caries, the author attempted to examine carious lesion artificially produced in the mixture of bread and saliva. However, as the result of this study, it has been revealed that the lesion is equally covered with a cuticle. Contrarily, on the same teeth, those portions of enamel at the level where the cuticle had been earlier destroyed on account of superficial occlusional grinding, are found devoid of cuticle. Consequently, these observations lead to a conclusion that the cuticle is a membrane permeated by cariogenic factors and for this reason, the cuticle remains undamaged in the early attack of caries. (Y. Awazawa)
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