Discrimination of healthy and carious teeth using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and partial least square discriminant analysis.

In the laser drilling of teeth, a microplasma is generated which may be utilized for elemental analysis of ablated tissue via a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique. In this study, LIBS is used to investigate the possibility of discrimination of healthy and carious tooth tissues. This possibility is examined using multivariate statistical analysis called partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) based on atomic and ionic emission lines of teeth LIBS spectra belonging to P, Ca, Mg, Zn, K, Sr, C, Na, H, and O elements. Results show an excellent discrimination and prediction of unknown tooth tissues. It is shown that using the PLS-DA method, the spectroscopic analysis of plasma emission during the laser drilling, would be a promising technique for caries detection.