Abstract Dental microwear has been used for the reconstruction of diet for decades, and given its long history, substantial changes in the methodologies and technologies used to observe and quantify microwear have occurred. For instance, early work on microwear used optical microscopy (OM), before being largely replaced by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). More recently, SEM-based studies have been overshadowed by confocal microscopy and dental microwear texture analysis. However, SEM is still the preferred method of data acquisition for buccal microwear analysis and significant improvements in OM have also occurred in recent years – particularly with the development of continuous focus systems for OM. Given the low-cost and simple upkeep of OM compared to SEM, this study seeks to explore the utility of OM for buccal microwear data acquisition compared to the methods established using SEM. A sample of 18 human teeth (originals and casts) were analyzed using both OM and SEM. Results show that more striations are observed using OM than when analyzing the same surface with SEM. However, the central counting trend is similar with both techniques. We can therefore conclude that OM is a consistent and user-friendly method that provides good image resolution together with a series of economic and technical advantages.

中文翻译：

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探索光学显微镜与扫描电子显微镜在牙科微磨损量化中的应用

摘要 牙科微磨损几十年来一直用于饮食重建，鉴于其悠久的历史，用于观察和量化微磨损的方法和技术发生了重大变化。例如，微磨损的早期工作使用光学显微镜 (OM)，然后在很大程度上被扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 取代。最近，基于 SEM 的研究被共聚焦显微镜和牙科微磨损纹理分析所掩盖。然而，SEM 仍然是口腔微磨损分析数据采集的首选方法，近年来 OM 也发生了显着改进——尤其是随着 OM 连续聚焦系统的发展。鉴于与 SEM 相比 OM 的低成本和简单的维护，本研究旨在探索与使用 SEM 建立的方法相比，OM 在口腔微磨损数据采集中的效用。使用 OM 和 SEM 分析了 18 颗人类牙齿（原件和铸件）的样本。结果表明，与使用 SEM 分析相同表面时相比，使用 OM 观察到的条纹更多。然而，这两种技术的集中计数趋势是相似的。因此，我们可以得出结论，OM 是一种一致且用户友好的方法，可提供良好的图像分辨率以及一系列经济和技术优势。两种技术的集中计数趋势相似。因此，我们可以得出结论，OM 是一种一致且用户友好的方法，可提供良好的图像分辨率以及一系列经济和技术优势。两种技术的集中计数趋势相似。因此，我们可以得出结论，OM 是一种一致且用户友好的方法，可提供良好的图像分辨率以及一系列经济和技术优势。