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Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Differential Imaging of Biological Structures with Doubly-resonant Coherent Anti-stokes Raman Scattering (CARS)
Published on: October 17, 2010
Detection of early dental caries using polarized Raman spectroscopy
Abstract:
A new technique based on polarized Raman spectroscopy is demonstrated for detecting early dental caries on extracted human teeth. Sound tooth enamel exhibited strong Raman polarization anisotropy whereas early caries consistently showed a lower degree of Raman polarization anisotropy. In particular, for sound enamel, the Raman peak arising from the symmetric nu1 vibration of PO(4) (3-) at 959 cm(-1) is strongly polarized. This is in contrast to the spectra of carious lesions that displayed weaker polarization dependence at 959 cm(-1). Such difference in the degree of Raman polarization anisotropy allows for discrimination between early dental caries and sound enamel.
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