Human Enamel Crack

Image of human molar enamel that was mechanically tested to generate a crack.The image was acquired by incident optical microscopy of the crack, which had been stained with colored inks to reveal its propagation through the enamel.

In this instance, a major crack, colored yellow, separated the enamel around the boundaries of enamel formed by adjacent enamel forming cells.Here, these boundaries are represented as an undulating upper and lower border to the yellow crack.

Original width 175 μm