Structure and scale of the mechanics of mammalian dental enamel viewed from a…

Mammalian enamel, the contact dental tissue,is something of an enigma. It is almost entirely made of hydroxyapatite, yet exhibits very different mechanical behavior to a homogeneous block of the same mineral. Recent approaches suggest that its hierarchical composite form,similar to other biological hard tissues, leads to a mechanical performance that depends very much on the scale of measuremen…