To study the susceptibility of carbonate-containing apatites to caries, synthetic CO3 apatites with various crystallinities and carbonate contents were prepared at 40, 60 and 80 °C. The crystallinity of CO3 apatites decreased with carbonate content and increased with temperature. The apparent solubility of CO3 apatites over pH 4–8 at 37 °C was related approximately to their crystallinity. In particular, the degree of increase in the solubility of CO3 apatites synthesized at 80 °C and thus having high crystallinity changed greatly in the region of 0–3 wt% of carbonate content, which approximates to that of enamel apatites. The relationship between solubility and crystallinity obtained in this study may be a useful indicator of the susceptibility of carbonate-containing apatites to acid.
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Okazaki et al. (2009) studied this question.