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There are many kinds of dental luting materials (cements) in the market. Some luting materials are fluoride-releasing to prevent secondary caries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the release of fluorine from fluoride-containing luting materials to adjacent dentin by in-air micro PIXE/PIGE (µPIXE/PIGE) system at Takasaki Advanced Radiation Research Institute. Each extracted human tooth crown was cut to expose a flat dentin surface. A 2-mm thick acrylic resin plate was cemented to each tooth using one of four fluoride-containing luting materials on the dentin surface: Fuji Luting EX (FL); Fuji I (FO); SA Luting plus (SA); and BeautiCem SA (BC). The specimens were sectioned and exposed to automated pH cycling (pH 4.5 and 7.0; simulate oral condition) for 4 or 8 weeks. After pH cycling, calcium and fluorine distributions were analyzed by the µPIXE/PIGE system with a 1.7-MeV 1H+ microbeam. The cumulative fluorine concentration (fluorine uptake) and calcium concentration in each specimen was calculated at a distance of 100 µm from the outermost surface. The results of our study indicated that FL had the highest concentration of fluorine uptake among all test materials in the 8-week group. The other three materials did not differ significantly from each other in terms of fluorine uptake. FL showed higher calcium content than SA in the 8-week group. Findings from this study suggest that the amount of fluorine penetration into dentin is likely to be dependent on the amount of fluoride released from each material, and also related to the amount of calcium present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]