• 대한소아치과학회지
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.640-658
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• 1996

The purpose of this study was to examine the mechanism of improving acid resistance of Nd-YAG laser irradiated tooth enamel and determine the most effective energy density for improving acid resistance. The bovine tooth enamel were lased with a pulsed Nd-YAG laser. The energy densities of exposed laser beam were varied from 10 to $70\;J/cm^2$. To investigate the degree of improving acid resistance by irradiation, all the samples were submerged to demineralize in 0.5 N $HClO_4$ solution for 1 minute. After 1 minute, 0.05 % $LaCl_3$ was added to the solution for interrupting the demineralization reaction. The amounts of dissolved calcium and phosphate in the solution were measured by using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer and the UV/VIS spectrophotometer, respectively. To examine the mechanism of improving acid resistance, X-ray diffraction analysis, infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy were taken. The X-ray diffraction pattern of the samples were obtained in the $10^{\circ}{\sim}80^{\circ}2{\theta}$ range with $Cu-K{\alpha}$ radiation using M18HF(Mac Science Co.) with X-ray diffractometer operating at 40 KV and 300 mA. The infra-red spectra of the ground samples in 300 mg KBr pellets 10 mm diameter were obtained in the $4000cm^{-1}\;to\;400cm^{-1}$ range using JASCO 300E spectrophotometer. The scanning electron microscopy was carried out using JSM6400(JEOL Co.) with $500{\sim}2000$ times magnification. The results were as follow 1. The concentration of calcium dissolved from laser irradiated enamel with $50J/cm^2$ was significantly lesser than that of unlased control group (p<0.05) 2. From the result of the X-ray diffraction analysis, $\beta$-TCP, which increases acid solubility, was identified in lased enamel but the diffraction peaks of (002) and (004) became sharp with increasing energy density of laser irradiation. This means that the crystals in lased samples were grown through the c-axis and subsequently, the acid solubility of enamel decreased. 3. The a-axis parameter was slightly increased by laser irradiation, whereas the c-axis parameter was almost constant except for a little decrease at $50J/cm^2$. 4. In the infra-red spectra of lased enamels, phosphate bands ($600{\sim}500cm^{-1}$), B-carbonate bands (870, $1415{\sim}1455cm^{-1}$), and A-carbonate band ($1545cm^{-1}$) were observed. The amounts of phosphate bands and the B-carbonate bands were reduced, on the other hand, the amount of the A-carbonate band was increased by increase the energy density. 5. The SEM experiments reveal that the surface melting and recrystallization were appeared at $30J/cm^2$ and the cracks were observed at $70J/cm^2$. From above results, It may be suggested that the most effective energy density for improving acid resistance of tooth enamel with the irradiation of Nd-YAG laser was $50J/cm^2$. The mechanism of improving acid resistance were reduction of permeability due to surface melting and recrystallization of lased enamel and reduction of acid solubility of enamel due to decrease of carbonate content and growth of crystal.