Optical coherence tomography of dental structures

Angela Baumgartner; Christoph K. Hitzenberger; Sabine Dichtl; Harald Sattmann; Andreas Moritz; Wolfgang Sperr; Adolf Friedrich Fercher

doi:10.1117/12.306017

22 April 1998 Optical coherence tomography of dental structures

Angela Baumgartner, Christoph K. Hitzenberger, Sabine Dichtl, Harald Sattmann, Andreas Moritz, Wolfgang Sperr, Adolf Friedrich Fercher

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3248, Lasers in Dentistry IV; (1998) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.306017
Event: BiOS '98 International Biomedical Optics Symposium, 1998, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

In the past ten years Partial Coherence Interferometry (PCI) and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) have been successfully developed for high precision biometry and tomography of biological tissues. OCT employs the partial coherence properties of a superluminescent diode and the Doppler principle yielding resolution and precision figures of the order of a few microns. Presently, the main application fields of this technique are biometry and imaging of ocular structures in vivo, as well as its clinical use in dermatology and endoscopic applications. This well established length measuring and imaging technique has now been applied to dentistry. First in vitro OCT images of the cemento (dentine) enamel junction of extracted sound and decayed human teeth have been recorded. These images distinguish dentine and enamel structures that are important for assessing enamel thickness and diagnosing caries. Individual optical A-Scans show that the penetration depth into enamel is considerably larger than into dentine. First polarization sensitive OCT recordings show localized changes of the polarization state of the light backscattered by dental material. Two-dimensional maps of the magnitude of the interference intensity and of the total phase difference between two orthogonal polarization states as a function of depth can reveal important structural information.

Citation Download Citation

Angela Baumgartner, Christoph K. Hitzenberger, Sabine Dichtl, Harald Sattmann, Andreas Moritz, Wolfgang Sperr, and Adolf Friedrich Fercher "Optical coherence tomography of dental structures", Proc. SPIE 3248, Lasers in Dentistry IV, (22 April 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.306017

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