Relationship between autofluoresecence, elemental composition and
mechanical properties
The regions of the teeth appearing green under CLSM (i.e., emitted a
strong signal after excitement with the 488 nm laser) contained high
proportions of Si and Ca. The sides of the stylus and the bases appeared
red- to yellow-brown (i.e., emitted a strong signal after excitement
with the lasers of 555 and 639 nm wavelength); here no high content of
Ca and Si were detected. The bulges appeared blue (i.e., emitted a
strong signal after excitement with the lasers of 405 nm wavelength);
these regions contained no high content of the targeted elements and
were the softest and most flexible tooth parts. We could not determine
relationships between the elemental content of the inner tooth structure
and the mechanical property values.