Shallow fluorine depth profiles of cementum in periodontal disease--a pilot study.

A nuclear resonant reaction depth profiling technique was used to analyze elemental fluorine distribution in the first 20 microns of human dental cementum. A pilot sample of six periodontally-involved teeth indicated greater levels of fluorine in exposed cementum (0.9 leads to 2.4%) compared to cementum apical to the zone of epithelial attachment (0.4 leads to 1.1%). Furthermore, the exposed cementum appeared to have fluorine levels within the surface 5 microns comparable to the hypermineralized layer previously reported by x-ray diffraction and microprobe techniques. The nuclear resonant reaction is a non-destructive technique which yields useful information of surface elemental distribution as a function of depth, and may be regarded as a potential means of analyzing changes in the inorganic constitution of cementum during various physico-chemical pre-treatments.