Enamel Thickness Determination by Optical Coherence Tomography: In vitro Validation

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been introduced in dentistry as a nondestructive diagnostic imaging tool that does not utilize ionizing radiation. This study investigated the agreement between polarization-sensitive OCT (PS-OCT), microcomputed tomography (μ-CT), and histology for enamel thickness measurements. Human enamel samples were prepared and evaluated with μ-CT and PS-OCT and then sectioned and observed via digital transversal light microscopy. For all methods, a standard transversal section (b-scan) in each sample was selected, and the enamel thickness was measured at three predetermined positions using ImageJ analysis software. The results revealed significant high agreement between all tested methods, indicating the potential of PS-OCT as a clinical tool to effectively measure enamel thickness.