An in vivo method for microhardness measurements on human teeth.

A non-destructive, in vivo method of measuring the enamel hardness directly on patients is described. Normal values on 39 students are given and compared with those of five patients, one of whom suffered from abnormal oral acid concentration, and the others from the effects of various degrees of hyposialosis caused by radiologic treatment of tumors in head and neck. The difference between the two groups was significant below the 0.1% level. It was suggested that the method may be used to test the degree of salivary gland inactivation after radiologic treatment and the efficiency of different saliva substitutes used to alleviate the effects of hyposialosis.