Optical coherence tomography applications in tooth wear diagnosis

Area of Science:

• Dentistry
• Biomedical Optics

Background:

• Dental wear is irreversible hard tissue loss from physical, chemical, or mechanical factors, excluding caries and trauma.
• Four clinical forms exist: erosion, attrition, abfraction, and abrasion, often with multiple etiological factors.
• Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a high-resolution, non-invasive optical imaging method with growing dental applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the utility of OCT in characterizing different clinical forms of dental wear.
• To elucidate the underlying mechanisms of erosion, attrition, abfraction, and abrasion using OCT imaging.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) for high-resolution imaging of dental hard tissues.
• Analyzed OCT images to identify specific features associated with different types of dental wear.

Main Results:

• OCT imaging demonstrated chemical aggression and demineralization in erosive tooth wear.
• OCT revealed excessive force and friction (bruxism) as key factors in attrition.
• OCT highlighted mechanical factors in abfraction and suggested abrasion can be physiological with age.

Conclusions:

• OCT is a valuable tool for detecting dental wear lesions non-invasively.
• OCT imaging provides evidence for the specific etiological mechanisms of different dental wear forms.