Early diagnosis of teeth caries with non-invasive optical coherence tomography

In this study, optical coherence tomography (OCT) was implemented for characterizing the early demineralization on enamel topology. 37% phosphoric acid was used to simulate the acid environment in the oral cavity and accelerates the acid effect. After temporally applying the phosphoric acid on the teeth surface, the changes in morphology and optical property of teeth can be identified with OCT. The OCT results illustrate the scattering intensity significantly increased during teeth demineralization. Therefore, the results obtained before and after acid application are quantitatively compared, based on the estimation of scattering coefficient and surface roughness. The estimated scattering coefficient increased with time during acid application and the same trend also can be found from the results of surface roughness. The results indicate that the demineralization on the teeth surface can be detected, enabling to further detect the early-stage cavities.