Caries assessment: Establishing mathematical link of clinical and benchtop method

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

It is well established that the development of new technologies for early detection and quantitative monitoring of dental caries at its early stage could provide health and economic benefits ranging from timely preventive interventions to reduction of the time required for clinical trials of anti-caries agents. However, the new technologies currently used in clinical setting cannot assess and monitor caries using the actual mineral concentration within the lesion, while a laboratory-based microcomputed tomography (MCT) has been shown to pssess this capability. Thus we envision the establishment of mathematical equations relating the measurements of each of the clinical technologies to that of MCT will enable the mineral concentration of lesions detected and assessed in clinical practice to be extrapolated from the equation, and this will facilitate preventitive care in dentistry to lower treatment cost. We utilize MCT and the two prominent clinical caries assessment devices (Quantitative Light-induced Fluorescence [QLF] and Diagnodent) to longitudinally monitor the development of caries in a continuous flow mixed-organisms biofilm model (artificial mouth), and then used the collected data to establish mathematical equation relating the measurements of each of the clinical technologies to that of MCT. A linear correlation was observed between the measurements of MicroCT and that of QLF and Diagnodent. Thus mineral density in a carious lesion detected and measured using QLF or Diagnodent can be extrapolated using the developed equation. This highlights the usefulness of MCT for monitoring the progress of an early caries being treated with therapeutic agents in clinical practice or trials.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number71660E
JournalProgress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE
Volume7166
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
EventOptics in Bone Biology and Diagnostics - San Jose, CA, United States
Duration: Jan 24 2009Jan 24 2009

Keywords

  • Caries assessment
  • Caries diagnosis
  • Diagnodent
  • Microcomputed tomography
  • Quantitative Light-induced fluorescence

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Biomaterials
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

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