New Artefacts for Old: An Alternative Method of Preparing Hard and Soft Tissue Interfaces of Developing Enamel

Serial sections (each from 150 to 200 μm thick) of porcine molar tooth germs within their bony crypts, rodent incisor teeth (in situ), and human extracted teeth were cut with a thin rotating diamond-impregnated disc, without prior embedding. Some specimens were cut unfixed, at room temperature (21°C) or frozen (-70°C), some in fixative, and others cut after fixation. A variety of routine fixatives has been tried, and in general the preservation of hard/soft tissue interfaces is best achieved when fixation precedes cutting. Several histological and histochemical methods have also been tried successfully. The damaged surface layers of the specimens brought about by the cutting disc can be removed after staining, if the section is embedded in a thin sheet of Epon and then thinned by being polished. The method provides a novel way of studying hard/soft tissue junctions.