Scanning Electron Microscopic Observations of the Successional Transformation of Octacalcium Phosphate to Whitlockite in Human Dental Calculus

Abstract

By using scanning electron microscopy, the successional transformation of plateshaped octacalcium phosphate (OCP) to hexahedral whitlockite (WH) was observed in human dental calculus. Such a transformation indicates that some of the WH crystals are epitaxially formed on OCP crystals.