Scanning electron microscope observations on the tubule content of freeze-fractured peripheral vervet monkey dentine...

Pulp tissue in the incisors was fixed in situ by perfusion. Cervical thirds of the tooth crowns were excised by sectioning the teeth transversely and cryofractured through the long axis of the tooth in a bucco-lingual mid-axial plane to expose the dentine from the pulp to the enamel-dentine junction. Specimens were freeze-dried and the fracture surfaces examined by scanning electron microscopy. Flattened tubular processes were noted protruding from the open ends of transversely fractured dentinal tubules in the outer third of the dentine. These structures were present in fractured tubules to within 20 microns of the enamel-dentine junction. These observations suggest that odontoblast processes traverse the full length of dentinal tubules.