Improved Fluoride Incorporation and New in Vitro Fluorine Elemental Determination

Abstract
A new, nondestructive technique, charged particle activation, was used to determine the fluorine concentration as a function of depth at 0.1-micrometer (μm) increments in the enamel of human teeth treated in vitro with three different fluorides. Twenty-four-hour treatment with K2ZrF6 showed a 24% fluorine concentration in the first 0.1-μm depth and 14% at 2.5 μm compared, respectively, with 4 and 2.5% concentrations after NaF treatments.