Investigation of a new light imaging technique to detect incipient caries in teeth

At the present time dental X-rays are the best method to locate carious lesions, however, small lesions can be detected only with difficulty. Even though investigations in the past have shown that light imaging systems are more sensitive to small lesions than X-rays it is difficult to determine the characteristics of these lesions with any of these systems. We developed a new light imaging technique that makes it much easier to determine the size and depth of these lesions on most areas of the teeth even though modifications on the present setup will still be necessary to detect them as easily on occlusal surfaces. This technique is based on raster scans of the teeth with narrow collimated light beams. The results of this investigation show that the areas ( greater than 0.1 mm 2) of small incipient lesions can be measured and their depths estimated.