COMPARATIVE SOLUBILITY STUDY OF HUMAN DENTAL ENAMEL, DENTIN, AND HYDROXYAPATITE

The solubility properties of hydroxyapatite (HA) are compared with those of human dental enamel and dentin. The apatites used in this study were equilibrated with dilute phosphoric acid solutions in CO2-containing atmospheres. The experimental results are interpreted in terms of solubility models which consider the biological materials as either HA or carbonatoapatites. Both in the HA and the dental mineral systems, the results are consistent with the precipitation of another carbonate-containing apatitic phase during equilibration. However, although the chemical behavior of the HA systems is in very good agreement with predictions based on the solubility models, the results with the bioapatites are not; this inconsistency is more marked for dentin than for enamel but in both cases the results clearly indicate the inadequacy of assuming for these dental apatites the stoichiometry of HA. The models and the experimental results show that, in principle, it is possible to define the two dental minerals in terms of respective solubility product constants, if independent information is attained on the stoichiometry of these bioapatites.