A study of the mineral phase of cementifying fibroma.

Physico-chemical study of a case of cementifying fibroma in the mandible of 78-year-old woman was carried out by X-ray diffraction analysis and thermogravimetric and differential-thermal analyses (TGA-DTA). The center of the tumor consisted of masses of acellular cementum-like tissues; while the periphery consisted of cementicle-like tissues. X-ray powder diffraction patterns showed that the mineral phase of these tissues was apatitic in nature. X-ray line broadening analysis revealed that the crystallinity of apatite of the cementum-like tissue was higher than that of apatite of cementicle-like tissue, and lower than that of bone apatite obtained from the same patient. Furthermore, TGA-DTA studies showed that the mineral (ash) value of cementum-like tissue was slightly higher than that of bone.