{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T05:32:45Z","timestamp":1791437565570,"version":"4.3.3"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"S. Karger AG","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2009,11,18]],"date-time":"2009-11-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1258502400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/karger.com\/pages\/terms-and-conditions"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2009,11,18]],"date-time":"2009-11-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1258502400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/karger.com\/pages\/terms-and-conditions"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Caries Res"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Epidemiologic studies and caries experiments with animals have suggested that caries susceptibility of teeth decreases with age. Observations on the changes in the dental tissues and their environment with age have pointed out that a process commonly referred to as \u2018posteruptive maturation\u2019 of the dental enamel may be responsible. To test this assumption 10 unerupted third molars and 56 erupted human premolar teeth of various posteruptive ages were subjected for 130 days to an acid gel for caries-like lesion formation in vitro. Sections of the teeth were examined with polarized light and \u2018contour maps\u2019 were drawn with the approximate porosity of the lesions. The results were: unerupted = 833 \u03bcm (\u00b1 261); erupted of posteruptive age 0\u20133 years = 561 \u03bcm (\u00b1 150), 4\u201310 years = 470 \u03bcm (\u00b1 136), 11\u201330 years = 459 \u03bcm (\u00b1 192) and over 30 years = 297 \u03bcm (\u00b1 89). These findings show a decrease in the susceptibility of enamel to artificial caries with increasing age, which was especially marked at and shortly after eruption. This may be explained by a completion of mineralization of the outer enamel at about eruption, by a maturation process of the outer enamel posteruptively and by a reduction in the permeability of enamel occurring through to old age. The fluoride content of the mid-coronal buccal surface enamel under study was found to decrease posteruptively with age, therefore not accounting for the deceasing caries susceptibility.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1159\/000261371","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2009,11,24]],"date-time":"2009-11-24T03:28:15Z","timestamp":1259033295000},"page":"241-250","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":51,"title":["Influence of Posteruptive Age of Enamel on Its Susceptibility to Artificial Caries"],"prefix":"10.1159","author":[{"given":"N.","family":"Kotsanos","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"A.I.","family":"Darling","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"127","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2009,11,18]]},"container-title":["Caries Research"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/karger.com\/article-pdf\/doi\/10.1159\/000261371","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T16:52:01Z","timestamp":1777481521000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/karger.com\/article\/doi\/10.1159\/000261371"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2009,11,18]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1159\/000261371","archive":["Portico"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["0008-6568","1421-976X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0008-6568","type":"print"},{"value":"1421-976X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2009,11,18]]}}}