The irradiation action on human dental tissue by X-rays and electrons--a nanoindenter study

It is known that ionizing radiation is used in medicine for Roentgen diagnostics and for radiation therapy. The radiation interacts with matter, in particular with biological one, essentially by scattering, photoelectric effect, Compton effect and pair production. To what extent the biological material is changed thereby, depends on the type and the amount of radiation energy, on the dose and on the tissue constitution. In modern radiation therapy two different kinds of radiation are used: high energy X-rays and electron radiation. In the case of head-neck tumors the general practice is an irradiation with high energy X-rays with absorbed dose to water up to 70 Gy. Teeth destruction has been identified as a side effect during irradiation. In addition, damage to the salivary glands is often observed which leads to a decrease or even the complete loss of the salivary secretion (xerostomia). This study shows how the different energy and radiation types damage the tooth tissue. The effects of both, high X-ray energy and high energy electrons, on the mechanical properties hardness and elasticity of the human dental tissue are measured by the nanoindentation technique. We compare these results with the effect of the irradiation of low X-ray energy on the dental tissue.