Cementum made more visual.

Dental cementum is a specialized calcified structure covering the root of a tooth. This study aims to investigate cementum using various stains which can be exceedingly useful in investigation, observation and diagnosis. 4µm sections of 25 extracted normal teeth, 25 cases of various cemental pathologies and 25 ground sections were stained using cresyl violet, H/E, toluidine blue and periodic acid Schiff and were observed under light and florescence microscopes. Cresyl violet showed best contrast amongst all stains in decalcified and ground sections under light and florescence microscopy. Under the fluorescence microscope, cementum floresced more distinctly than dentin and enamel. Among the cemental pathologies examined, osteoid and cementoid exhibited florescence but cementum and bone did not fluoresce. Incremental lines were prominently visualised with cresyl violet under fluorescent microscopy, which may aid in forensic determination of age. The present results demonstrate that cementum in normal decalcified teeth and cemento-osseous lesions, could be observed best using cresyl violet stain under florescence microscopy.