School of Dentistry

Discovery Regarding the Structure of Teeth by Researcher Alban Desoutter - January 16, 2023

Published on in Podcast

Alban Desoutter and Frédéric Cuisinier of the LBN discuss the ripples in enamel, a discovery that could explain why our teeth are so strong.

PODCAST – Le Mag de Clapas – Radio Clapas: https://podcasts.audiomeans.fr/le-mag-de-clapas-radio-clapas-aaf2f24c9346/236-decouverte-sur-la-structure-des-dents-par-le-chercheur-alban-desoutter-213fdedd

To have a big appetite, or to have a grudge against someone—often a stubborn one, or why not a hollow one if you’ve got fangs. Fangs to bite into life with gusto or, on the contrary, to gnash your teeth until they grind. Expressions referring to our canines, molars, and other incisors pepper our vocabulary, reflecting the importance we place on our teeth. In psychoanalysis, Carl Jung and others even interpreted dreams featuring falling teeth as a sign of fear or resistance to change. Don’t smile, though, because it’s undoubtedly to spare the little ones from breaking their teeth on this anxiety that our imaginations—armed to the teeth—finally gave birth to a mouse to retrieve those little teeth and restore peace of mind without waiting for the chickens to grow teeth.

As you can see, today’s topic has us gaping in amazement as we discuss a scientific discovery that could explain why our teeth are so strong. Alban Desoutter and Frédéric Cuisinier both work at the Bioengineering and Nanosciences Laboratory in Montpellier—the former as a technical assistant and doctoral student, the latter as a faculty researcher. Using 3D technology, they discovered a mysterious structure hidden deep within our teeth, which they’ve dubbed “enamel drapes.” Their findings were published in the journal *Archives of Oral Biology*.

Read:

The publication: "Human Tooth Enamel Tuft Drapes Revealed by Microtomography", A . Desoutter, I. Panayotov, F. Cuisinier, D. Carayon, Archives of Oral Biology, September 2022.  

Draped tufts: A 3D-revealed tooth structure may finally explain its high strength, Sciences et avenir, November 18, 2022