RESUMEN
Dentine hypersensitivity (DH) is one of the most common dental conditions affecting most adults during their lifetime. Tubule occlusion is a widely accepted method for treating DH. Current in-vitro techniques such as focused ion beam, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), or hydraulic conductance that are used to determine tubule occlusion do not provide the depth of occlusion, are time-consuming, expensive and the volume of dentine tested is limited. The presented study aimed to assess the ability of serial block-face SEM (SBF-SEM) to section dentine, to quantify the number of occluded tubules including the depth of penetration by NovaMin and stannous fluoride (SnF2 ) and to compare mineral density between the control and treated dentine. Results demonstrated that NovaMin provided a better occlusion with 100% of the tubules blocked at the surface compared to 83% for SnF2 . The grayscale value (230.42) was significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) after treatment with NovaMin compared to SnF2 (222.06) and the control (196.37), indicating increased mineral density and dentine mineralization. SBF-SEM has the potential to be used for large volume analysis of bone-like materials at high resolution with minimal sample preparation over a short period. It can be significantly useful in the development and research of new biomaterials.