Nondestructive testing in human teeth using a leaky Lamb wave device

A Lamb wave interdigital transducer mounted on a layered substrate composed of two plates, a thin piezoelectric ceramic plate and an acrylic plate, operating at a liquid-solid boundary, is investigated for ultrasonic nondestructive testing of the layer thickness in human teeth. A higher-order mode having a phase velocity higher than the longitudinal wave velocity in the human teeth can be used for nondestructive testing. In the combination of the two layers, the fourth mode of leaky Lamb wave is most favorable for a frequency-controllable radiation angle of an ultrasound beam into a water layer as an acoustic coupler. In the configuration of an acoustic delay line, the layer-thickness measurement in vivo, evaluated from the time interval between two reflected ultrasound echoes, is successfully realized under a thin water layer as the acoustic coupler.