Spectrochemical analysis of dental calculus by synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence.

This work presents elemental composition studies of human dental calculus by X-ray fluorescence analysis using synchrotron radiation. The intrinsic characteristics of synchrotron light allow for a quantitative analysis of major, minor, and trace elements of very small samples in a single measurement. At present, several theories of calculus formation exist, but none of them can describe completely all the complicated mechanisms involved in the mineralization processes.