Jihoon NA, Jae Ho BAEK¹, Seon Young RYU, Changsu LEE², and Byeong Ha LEE

Department of Information and Communications, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), 261 Cheomdan-gwagiro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, Korea
¹Department of Orthodontics, Division of Dentistry, Ulsan University Hospital, 290-3 Jeonha-dong, Dong-gu, Ulsan 682-714, Korea
²Department of Electronic Engineering, The University of Suwon, Bongdam, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi 445-743, Korea

(Received December 27, 2008; Accepted March 24, 2009)

We present the optical coherence tomography (OCT) made to investigate the early dental caries in human teeth and compare its results with those taken by conventional imaging modalities including light illuminating examination (LIE), digital intra-oral radiography (DIOR), and electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA). Morphological features and caries-involved areas of the dental structure were mainly investigated by LIE, DIOR, and OCT to study the infection of the caries lesion in pits and fissures. The biochemical information acquired with EPMA and the morphological features taken with OCT in the early stage of caries were compared and analyzed to present an objective and practical index for the degree of caries. The experimental results allow us to conclude that OCT could be used to provide quantitative analysis of caries based on the reflectivity difference in the specimen.

Key words: optical coherence tomography, biomedical imaging, medical optics instrumentation, dental decay, early caries