Background removal from polarized Raman spectra of tooth enamel using the wavelet transform

A wavelet transformation method is introduced to remove the large fluorescence background from polarized Raman spectra of stained tooth enamel. This method exploits the wavelet multiresolution decomposition where the experimental Raman spectrum is decomposed into signals with different frequency components, and where the lowest frequency background and highest frequency noise are removed. This method is optimized using a simulated collection of parallel-polarized and cross-polarized Raman spectra of the enamel and then applied to a set of experimental data. The results show that the wavelet transform technique can extract the pure spectra from background and noise, with the depolarization ratio used to discriminate between early dental caries and sound enamel preserved. Copyright (C) 2010 Crown in the right of Canada. Published by John Wiley & Sons. Ltd.