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. 2009:7162:71620X.
doi: 10.1117/12.816866.

Near-IR Multi-modal Imaging of Natural Occlusal Lesions

Dustin Lee  1 , Daniel Fried, Cynthia L Darling
Affiliations

Near-IR Multi-modal Imaging of Natural Occlusal Lesions

Dustin Lee et al. Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2009.

Abstract

Reflectance and transillumination imaging show demineralization with high contrast in the near-IR. The objective of this study is to use lesion size and contrast acquired in reflectance and transillumination near-infrared imaging modes to estimate the severity of natural occlusal caries lesions. Previous studies have shown that near-infrared (NIR) light can be used to effectively image artificial carious lesions. However, its efficacy on natural lesions requires further exploration. Fifty extracted teeth with varying amounts of occlusal decay were examined using a NIR imaging system operating at 1310-nm. Image analysis software was used to calculate contrast values between sound and carious tooth structure. After imaging, teeth were histologically sampled at 1-mm intervals in order to determine lesion depth. Lesion contrast in transillumination mode significantly increased with lesion depth (p<0.001), while lesion contrast in reflectance mode did not increase. The lesion area demonstrated a significant increase with lesion severity in both imaging modes. These results suggest that lesion contrast and area can be used to estimate lesion severity in NIR images.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(top) Orientation of light source and detector for NIR-reflectance and (bottom) NIR-transillumination through the occlusal surface.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
(A) Visible-light reflectance image, (B) radiograph, (C) NIR-transillumination image, and (D) NIR-Reflectance image for one of the teeth.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The mean ± s.d. contrast values for NIR-transillumination (top) and NIR-reflectiance(bottom).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The mean ± s.d. multimode contrast ratios for (CT/CR).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
The mean ± s.d. lesion area for NIR-transillumination (top) and NIR-reflectiance (bottom).
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