Enamel rod formation in the monkey observed by scanning electron microscopy.

Scanning electron microscopy of permanent tooth buds of the monkey confirmed that mineralizing interrod enamel surrounds Tomes' processes on three sides, forming pits that restrict enamel rod formation. The forming face of the enamel rod, which is the floor of the pit, angled toward the tooth surface at the apical edge of the pit, the side nearest the cervical region of the tooth. Consequently, the apical edge of each pit was the only site where both rod and interrod enamel were formed at the nascent tooth surface. The ameloblasts had two secretory surfaces. One was the microvillous surface of the short Tomes' process abutting the forming face of the enamel rod. The other surface, closer to the ameloblast, was between Tomes' processes, abutting the crests of interrod enamel which formed the pits. At each site forming enamel crystallites had specific orientations. Due to the angle of the forming face of the rod and the short Tomes' process, crystallites with both rod and interrod orientation form at the same time and the same plane within the apical (cervical) margin of each rod. It is hypothesized that indistinct boundaries between rod and interrod enamel at the apical margin of each rod are due to both secretory surfaces of ameloblasts secreting at the same time and at the same site.