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Non‐destructive clinical assessment of occlusal caries lesions using near‐IR imaging methods
Author(s) -
Staninec Michal,
Douglas Shane M.,
Darling Cynthia L.,
Chan Kenneth,
Kang Hobin,
Lee Robert C.,
Fried Daniel
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
lasers in surgery and medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1096-9101
pISSN - 0196-8092
DOI - 10.1002/lsm.21139
Subject(s) - transillumination , optical coherence tomography , enamel paint , molar , dentin , lesion , dentistry , materials science , medicine , biomedical engineering , pathology , radiology
Abstract Objective Enamel is highly transparent in the near‐IR (NIR) at wavelengths near 1,300 nm, and stains are not visible. The purpose of this study was to use NIR transillumination and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to estimate the severity of caries lesions on occlusal surfaces both in vivo and on extracted teeth. Methods Extracted molars with suspected occlusal lesions were examined with OCT and polarization sensitive OCT (PS‐OCT), and subsequently sectioned and examined with polarized light microscopy (PLM) and transverse microradiography (TMR). Teeth in test subjects with occlusal caries lesions that were not cavitated or visible on radiographs were examined using NIR transillumination at 1,310 nm using a custom built probe attached to an indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) camera and a linear OCT scanner. After imaging, cavities were prepared using dye staining to guide caries removal and physical impressions of the cavities were taken. Results The lesion severity determined from OCT and PS‐OCT scans in vitro correlated with the depth determined using PLM and TMR. Occlusal caries lesions appeared in NIR images with high contrast in vivo. OCT scans showed that most of the lesions penetrated to dentin and spread laterally below the sound enamel. Conclusion This study demonstrates that both NIR transillumination and OCT are promising new methods for the clinical diagnosis of occlusal caries. Lasers Surg. Med. 43:951–959, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.