PATHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Dental cementum is a living tissue that continues to grow throughout life. It is the calcified material that covers the outside of the tooth root, and provides the attachment site for the periodontal ligaments which hold the tooth to the alveolar bone within the socket.

Detailed explanation-2: -Cementum, or root cementum, is a mineralized tissue covering the entire root surface. According to Denton [1], cementum was first demonstrated microscopically by Fraenkel and Raschkow (1835) and Retzius (1836), and has since become a part of general knowledge in dentistry.

Detailed explanation-3: -Cementum is not directly fused to dentin. It is attached to dentin via a 100–200 µm thick interface within which a 10–50 µm wide hygroscopic proteoglycan (PG)-rich layer known as the cementum-dentin junction (CDJ) exists [5, 9, 13–17].

Detailed explanation-4: -The periodontium of a human tooth includes three mineralized tissues: alveolar bone, cementum and root dentin, of which cementum and alveolar bone interface with a soft fibrous tissue; the periodontal ligament (PDL), forming a fibrous joint or gomphosis [1, 2].

Detailed explanation-5: -Cementum attachment protein (CAP) is a collagenous cementum-derived protein which binds strongly to osteoblasts, moderately to PDL cells, and weakly to gingival fibroblasts.