Dependence of rate of physical erosion on orientation and density in mineralised tissues

Summary

Bone, dentine and enamel samples were treated with a gas-propelled jet of an abrasive, NaHCO₃, which is physically much softer than any of these tissues in their fully mineralised condition. It was nevertheless found that they are all eroded by this treatment, which can therefore be used as a new kind of qualitative test of physical properties relating to wear resistance. General correlations were found between both degree of mineralisation and between structure orientation and erosion rate, surface-parallel-feature zones being worn more rapidly. Bone domains with surface-parallel collagen were eroded faster than those with perpendicular lamellae even if they were more densely mineralised. Rates of dentine wear depended on both density and tubule orientation, with peritubular zones and better mineralised incremental layers being more resistant. Enamel tufts wear more rapidly than the surrounding well mineralised regions. Enamel diazones wear less than parazones (areas with surface parallel prisms). At the prism scale, enamel is removed more rapidly near prism boundary discontinuities and in tubular enamel, at tubule walls. As regards the common orientation dependent effects seen in these three tissues, a cohesive explanation would be that structure discontinuities can be better exploited in a wear process if they allow cleavage from the surface; which tendency will increase with parallelism to the surface.