Technical note: Micro-computed tomography calibration using dental tissue for bone mineral research

Area of Science:

• Paleoanthropology
• Biomaterials Science
• Radiological Imaging

Background:

• Computed tomography (CT) and microcomputed tomography (μCT) commonly use density phantoms for mineral concentration (MC) and density calibration.
• Existing
• phantomless
• calibration methods often rely on bodily tissues or fluids, which are not readily available in archeological and osteological research.

Purpose of the Study:

• This study investigates the efficacy of using dental tissues as an internal reference for μCT calibration.
• The aim is to facilitate accurate bone MC analysis in contexts where conventional phantoms are impractical.

Main Methods:

• Seventy molars from 24 primate species, including human teeth, were analyzed.
• Scans were performed using density phantoms for initial calibration.
• Specific regions of molars (lateral aspects of mesial cusps) were sampled for MC analysis.

Main Results:

• Dental enamel and dentine exhibited low variation in MC values (1.27 ± 0.03 g/cm³ for dentine, 2.25 ± 0.03 g/cm³ for enamel).
• No significant differences in MC were found across different molar types or scanning parameters (scanner model, resolution, filters).
• Ad hoc testing on mandibles showed minimal variance (within 0.05 g/cm³) between phantom and dental tissue calibration methods.

Conclusions:

• A novel
• phantomless
• calibration technique utilizing mean enamel and dentine MC values is proposed.
• This method can aid in assessing bone pathology and studying bone structure variations in archeological, osteological, and laboratory settings.