A new dental cement was developed by use of tetracalcium phosphate monoxide (Te-CP) and dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD). When an equimolar mixture of the two calcium phosphates was mixed with diluted phosphoric acid, it hardened into a phase of hydroxyapatite (HAp) resembling the main inorganic phase of hard tissues. The present study was undertaken to investigate physico-chemical properties of this newly developed apatite cement and to evaluate its potential as dental cement to clinical application. The setting time was reduced in the presence of synthetic HAp, indicating added HAp to be an accelerator in the setting reaction. The pH of paste rapidly increased to a neutral range from initial solution acidity of about 2.0 and the subsequent setting reaction proceeded in a neutral and weak alkaline pH range. The hardened solid 4 hours after saturation was identified as single phase of apatite by X-ray diffraction. The HAp crystallinity of the set cement varied with the crystallinity of HAp added as setting accelerator. The wet compressive strength of the cement stored for one day in synthetic saliva at 37 degrees C increased to 400 kg/cm2 as added HAp crystallinity decreased. Moreover no disintegration took place when the cement was stored at 37 degrees C in synthetic saliva, which was undersaturated with respect to DCPD but well supersaturated for HAp. In clinical application to animals, no significant cleavage was observed between the hard tissues and the cement by SEM even three months after the cement paste was filled in the tooth cavity of monkeys. In the specimen prepared one week after implantation in the medullary canal of rats, no inflammatory cell appeared. The specimen prepared one month after implantation showed that the set cement was tightly contacted with newly formed bone. These findings strongly suggest that the newly developed self-setting apatite cement is useful as a pulp capping agents, root canal fillings and bone substitute.