A pilot study to assess the morphology and progression of non-carious cervical lesions

This longitudinal pilot study aimed to morphologically and quantitatively investigate the progress of non-carious cervical lesions (NCCLs) by using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT).

The samples examined comprised sets of NCCL epoxy resin replicas obtained from 10 lesions in 6 patients who attended annual dental visits over 4 or 5 years. SS-OCT images of the replicas were analyzed in terms of the maximum depth (D_max) and corresponding vertical width (VW) - using an image analyzer to estimate progression of the NCCLs over time.

It was found that differences between wedge- and saucer-shaped lesions were morphologically distinguished well by the OCT images. There were significant differences in dimensions among D_max, VW and horizontal width (HW). HW was the largest and D_max was the smallest. Although no significant differences in absolute values of annual progression rates were found among D_max, VW and HW, the percentage increase in D_max was significantly greater compared to VW and HW. The ratios of D_max to corresponding VW ranged from 0.49 to 1.01 for the wedge-shaped lesions and from 0.13 to 0.44 for saucer-shaped lesions, respectively.

The dimensional analysis demonstrated notable progression with large variations. The wedge-shaped lesions appeared to show greater D_max values compared to the saucer-shaped lesions.

With respect to the depth, the wedge-shaped lesions may progress at a greater rate compared to the saucer-shaped lesions.