Human Enamel ¿ Elegantly Designed Natural Biocomposite: a Nano-mechanical and Micro-structural Study

As the outer cover of teeth, enamel is the hardest, stiffest and one of the most durable load-bearing tissues of the human body. Material scientists are interested in the structure and function of the natural material. How does nature design the material to meet its functional needs? While dental practitioners are keen to know the properties of enamel and compare it with different dental materials. What kind of dental materials can best simulate enamel as a restoration in the oral cavity? The content of this book will attempt to provide answers or indications to the above questions. Bearing the assumption that the hierarchical microstructure and trace protein remnants in enamel regulate the mechanical behaviour of the natural biocomposite in mind, the nano-mechanical properties of human enamel was thoroughly explored by the most-advanced nanoindentation, SEM and vibrational spectroscopy technologies. The outcomes successfully interpreted how microstructural and compositional features of enamel regulate its mechanical behaviour. The new information and analytical methods provided by the book will be of benefit to dental material development, evaluation and selection.