A Better Caries Detection Device

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A new method for detecting dental caries, optical coherence tomography (OCT) will not be ready until next year. OCT can explore deeper into tissues than dental radiographs thus helping to locate where a so-called caries lesion is beginning, as well as the amount of demineralization that has already taken place, but does not offer any biochemical data. Therefore, several investigators combine OCT with spectroscopy, in order to use the positive attributes of both to conquer the limitations of specificity and sensitivity of accessible caries-detection inventions including D-Carie, Diagnodent, and DIFOTI.

Studies have shown that Diagnodent and DIFOTI may detect possible dental caries, but they have low sensitivity and specificity. Researchers want to give dentists the capacity to differentiate between tooth demineralization and staining, pigments, and areas of hypocalcification, using the combined OCT-spectrophometry methodology.

Using teeth that were extracted, Canadian researchers, have detecting very small dental caries combining Raman spectroscopy and OCT to look for changes in calcium hydroxyapatite. Their next order of business is to make it more effective. An real hand-held clinical instrument is approximately 5 years in the future, but will be created to display the OCT image  of possible dental caries and a “yes/no/maybe”  transmission. This is comparable to Diagnodent, however a number will also be used that will indicate the extent of the carious lesion. With time, OCT-spectrophotometry can be developed to get biochemical data on chemical composition and proteins, but areas of hypocalcification can still be confused for caries to the un-trained eye.

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