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Updated: May 13, 2026

Accuracy in Dental Medicine, A New Way to Measure Trueness and Precision
Published on: April 29, 2014
Magnetic resonance imaging of solid dental restoration materials using 3D UTE sequences: visualization and
Ulrich Grosse1, Roland Syha, Dimitrios Papanikolaou
1Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Tuebingen, Hoppe-Seyler-Strasse 3, 72076, Tübingen, Germany, ulrich.grosse@med.uni-tuebingen.de.
Object:
Due to an increasing scientific interest in MR-imaging of carious lesions and teeth, an accurate signal characterization of dental restoration materials is necessary for optimization of MR sequence protocols and evaluation of material degradation. Therefore, signal yield and relaxation behavior of common dental restoration materials in comparison to those of dentine of extracted human teeth were assessed in vitro by ultrashort echo time (UTE) sequences.
Materials And Methods:
Eighteen material samples and dentine of two freshly extracted human teeth were investigated on a 3T whole-body clinical MR-scanner. Transverse (T2*) and longitudinal relaxation times (T1) were quantified using a recently published modified Ernst equation that takes relevant in-pulse relaxation effects into account.
Results:
All investigated samples could be successfully visualized but maximum signal yield was highly variable between samples. T1-values of the investigated dental restoration materials ranged between 28 and 365 ms, whereas T2*-values ranged between 96 and 917 μs. In contrast, T1-values of dentine (T1=545 ms±299 ms) were higher, while T2*-values (T2*=478 μs±271 μs) showed similar values.
Conclusions:
Dental restoration materials and dentine of extracted human teeth can be visualized by UTE sequences and show a broad range of signal yield and relaxation times.
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Description of the Procedures
Computed Tomography (CT) scan:
Computed Tomography (CT) scans use X-ray technology to generate detailed images of bones, organs, and tissues. During the scan, the patient lies on a moving table...

