Shrinkage prevention of in vitro demineralized human dentine in transversal microradiography

The shrinkage of demineralized dentine is a serious problem in the assessment of mineral distributions and mineral changes by means of microradiography. In this article it is shown that a treatment with ethanediol of the thin slices used for transversal microradiography prevents shrinkage for about 1 h. Without this so-called diol treatment, the shrinkage effects in demineralized dentin are about 20% in lesion depth and about 30% in mineral loss (delta Z) after 120-second drying in air. The prevention of shrinkage by diol treatment of dentine lesions is not influenced by the presence of a surface layer.