Optical properties of human radicular dentin: ATR-FTIR characterization and dentine tubule direction influence on radicular post adhesion

Knowledge of dental structures is essential for understanding of laser interaction and its consequences during adhesion processes. Tubule density in dentin ranges from 4.900 to 90.000 per mm2, for diameters from 1 to 3 μm. Light propagation inside the tubules is associated with tubules orientation. To the best of our knowledge, there is no previous work in literature characterizing physical-chemical alterations in dentin. The dentin samples were irradiated with a Er,Cr:YSGG Laser at wavelength 2.78 μm, with an energy density of 9.46 J/cm2 , above the ablation threshold. ATRFTIR at wavenumbers 2000 to 700 cm-1 was used to evaluate the differences among third root region and tubules orientation.