Non-invasive in vivo assessment of the mechanical properties of hard connective tissues and its clinical applications has been hampered in part because of coupling effects with the surrounding soft tissues. Here, we present a new technique that can, through correlation analysis, potentially separate the effects of the soft tissues and provide information about the underlying hard connective tissues. Preliminary studies on an animal model and on human subjects, as well as on an ultrasonically equivalent tissue phantom, show that this technique minimizes the effects of the soft tissues and is quite sensitive to defects in the hard connective tissues. It is suggested that suitable adaptations of this technique may prove of diagnostic use in clinical dentistry as well.
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