Interglobular Dentin in the Deciduous Tooth

¹ Department of Anatomy, Nihon University School of Dentistry, Tokyo, Japan

The frequency of occurrence of interglobular spaces observed in longitudinal serial ground sections of 219 deciduous teeth, in agreement with several other studies, supports the fact that interglobular spaces are absent or infrequent in dentin formed before birth. The study also shows that dentin formed after birth may or may not contain interglobular spaces.

The frequency of the appearance and arrangement of the interglobular spaces observed in the sections studied would seem to indicate that they are within normal limits. It is believed that their formation is associated with local, rather than systemic, conditions.

Interglobular spaces limit, for some unknown reason, the fusion of calcospherites in certain areas of the dentin. Because of the obvious sclerosis seen in this and other studies, it seems that interglobular spaces do not limit the degree of dentin calcification.