Optical coherence tomography follow-up of patients treated from periodontal disease

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is one of the most important imaging modalities for biophotonics applications. In this work, an important step towards the clinical use of OCT in dental practice is reported, by following-up patients treated from periodontal disease (PD). A total of 147 vestibular dental sites from 14 patients diagnosed with PD were evaluated prior and after treatment, using a swept-source OCT and two periodontal probes (Florida probe and North Carolina) for comparison. The evaluation was performed at four stages: day 0, day 30, day 60 and day 90. Exceptionally one patient was evaluated 1-year after treatment. It was possible to visualize in the two-dimensional images the architectural components that compose the periodontal anatomy, and identify the improvements in biofilm and dental calculus upon treatment. In the follow-up after the treatment, it was observed in some cases decrease of the gingival thickness associated with extinction of gingival calculus. In some cases, the improvement of both depth of probing with the traditional probes and the evidence in the images of the region was emphasized. The study evidenced the ability of OCT in the identification of periodontal structures and alterations, being an important noninvasive complement or even alternative for periodontal probes for treatment follow-up. OCT system being used in a clinical environment. Above OCT image (left) prior treatment and (right) 30 days after treatment.