Comparative study to quantify demineralized enamel in deciduous and permanent teeth using laser- and light-induced...

Area of Science:

• Dental research
• Biophotonics
• Caries diagnostics

Background:

• Dental caries affects both primary (deciduous) and permanent teeth, progressing faster in primary enamel.
• New diagnostic methods for early caries detection require validation on deciduous teeth.
• Quantitative laser-induced fluorescence (QLF I and QLF II) show promise for quantifying mineral loss but have primarily been tested on permanent dentition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate and compare the efficacy of QLF I and QLF II in quantifying mineral loss from early carious lesions in both deciduous and permanent teeth.
• To assess the correlation between fluorescence changes measured by QLF and mineral loss determined by transverse microradiography (TMR).

Main Methods:

• Thirty deciduous and 30 permanent teeth were artificially demineralized to create carious lesions.
• Enamel demineralization was assessed using both QLF I and QLF II to measure changes in fluorescence radiance (Delta F).
• Lesion depth and integrated mineral loss (IML) were quantified using transverse microradiography (TMR) as the gold standard.

Main Results:

• A strong correlation was observed between QLF I and QLF II measurements in both deciduous (r=0.96) and permanent teeth (r=0.98).
• In deciduous teeth, Delta F showed good correlation with TMR for lesion depth and IML (r=0.76-0.88).
• In permanent teeth, the correlation between Delta F and TMR was weaker (r=0.07-0.62).

Conclusions:

• Both QLF I and QLF II are capable of quantifying mineral loss in early carious lesions in deciduous teeth.
• The accuracy of QLF methods for quantifying mineral loss in early caries is slightly higher in deciduous teeth than in permanent teeth under the study conditions.