Tubule Density and Diameter in Coronal Dentin from Primary and Permanent Human Teeth

This study compared dentinal tubule density and diameter of human primary and permanent teeth at different depths of the coronal dentin. Crowns of eight primary second molars and eight permanent third molars were serially sectioned into three disks of similar to 0.5 mm thickness (superficial, middle, and deep layers), perpendicular to the long axis. Tubule density and diameter were evaluated in 2,000X and 3,000X magnifications by scanning electron microscopy. Data obtained were subjected to two-way repeated measures ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc test (alpha = 0.05). Tubule density was greater in primary teeth compared with permanent ones, regardless of depth (primary: 124,329 +/- 43,594 mm(2); permanent: 45,972 +/- 21,098 mm(2) ). In general, the tubule density increased as the dentin depth increased, except to the superficial and middle layers from permanent teeth. Tubule diameter was larger in the dentin layer close to the pulp chamber (superficial: 2.4 +/- 0.07 mu m; middle: 3.70 +/- 0.06 mu m; deep: 4.28 6 +/- 0.04 mu m). No difference was observed between primary (3.48 +/- 0.81 mu m) and permanent teeth (3.47 +/- 0.73 mu m). The tubule diameter increases as the dentin depth increases for primary and permanent teeth; however, the tubule density is higher in primary teeth.