Many kinds of animals possess teeth, but none are as well developed as the teeth of vertebrates. They consist of a main body of a compact bone-like material known as dentin and its outer surface is covered by an even harder material called enamel. Odontoblasts are specialized cells that deposit calcium matrix to form the dentin layer, and their induction occurs only once during tooth development. Once the tooth is completely erupted, odontoblasts maintain their capacity to secrete secondary and reactionary dentin. Each odontoblast has one extension, called odontoblast process or Tomes's fiber, and these processes protrude into a network of fluid-filled microscopic tubules that run through the dentin.
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