Mesoscale structural comparison of hypomineralized and sound dental enamel by nanobeam X-ray diffraction mapping

Dental enamel is the most durable biomineralized tissue in the human body. Lifelong robustness of dental enamel relies on its special mineral structure. Unbalance during enamel mineralization produces defectuous enamel with weakened functional performance like in case of molar-incisor hypomineralization syndrome (MIH). Present proposal is to reveal the meso-to-nanostructural background of MIH affected teeth by combining synchrotron nanobeam diffraction with (HR)TEM. This multilevel approach allows to follow spatial distribution of pathological crystallization with respect to prism structure, and contributes to the understanding how this biomineralization anomaly develops, which is essential for the early diagnosis and effective treatment.