The ultrastructure of the odontoblast reflects the certain phases that the cell undergoes in their lifecycle. Ultrastructure studies of the odontoblasts have often been carried out using young teeth. In this study, teeth from an older individual have been used to study the odontoblasts from the crown and root area. The odontoblasts from the crown area retain their columnar shape while odontoblasts from the root area appeared to be flattened. The organelles present in the odontoblasts either from the crown or root area was observed to be reduced.
Phosphophoryn, a higWyphosphorylated protein, is the most abundant protein among the non-collagenous protein of dentine. The staining of phosphophoryn can be done by using the silver colloid staining. In this paper, the staining effect of the silver colloid stain on both non-sclerotic and sclerotic dentine was investigated. Eight teeth from donors aged 14, 17, 22, 34, 55, 57, 60 and 65 were used for this experiment. The younger teeth were used to demonstrate normal root dentine while the older age teeth were used to demonstrate sclerotic root dentine at the apical region of the root. There was no staining of the normal root dentine as compared to sclerotic dentine when the silver colloid staining was used.