title: Characterization of natural carious lesions by fluorescence spectroscopy at 405-nm excitation wavelength.
abstract: We aim to characterize natural caries enamel lesions by fluorescence spectroscopy. Sixty human samples with natural noncavitated caries lesions on smooth surfaces were selected and classified into three groups: dull, shiny, and brown lesions. All the samples were analyzed externally at the natural surface and after hemisectionig internally at the center of the lesion. The lesions were excited with a 405-nm InGaN diode laser and the fluorescence was collected with a single grating spectrometer. Four emission bands (455, 500, 582, and 622 nm) are identified in both sound and carious regions. The area under each emission band is correlated with the total area of the four bands for the sound and carious regions. The detected fluorescence from natural and cut surfaces through the caries lesions is not statistically different for the shiny and dull lesion, but is different [analysis of variance (ANOVA) (p<0.05)] for brown lesion at all emission bands. At the 405-nm excitation wavelength, the area of the fluorescence bands at 455 and 500 nm differ statistically for natural carious lesions and sound tissue.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN/CNEN-SP), São Paulo, Brazil. zezell@usp.br
authors.forename: Denise Maria
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Zezell
authors.forename: Adriana Costa
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: Luciano
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bachmann
authors.forename: Anderson Stevens Leonidas
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: Christel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rousseau
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Girkin
mesh_terms: D003731:Dental Caries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D003743:Dental Enamel / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000737:chemistry; D005453:Fluorescence; D006801:Humans; D007834:Lasers; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*