I-Corps: Development of a Periodontal Ultrasound/Photoacoustic Imaging Device

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力可能导致准确和早期发现牙周病，以减少牙齿护理的痛苦和费用。牙周病很常见，通常会导致牙痛、牙齿脱落、生活质量下降，甚至会导致心血管疾病等全身性疾病。目前的牙周评估方法是手工探诊和目视检查。这些方法往往不准确，重复性差，而且耗时，有时还很痛苦。虽然x射线成像捕获了口腔内硬组织的详细信息，但却遗漏了有关软组织的更详细信息。对评估牙齿健康的非侵入性成像有一个基本的未满足的需求。该项目将改善牙周评估和诊断、治疗计划和治疗监测。它还可能使牙科检查对病人来说不那么痛苦，对牙医来说更准确。这个I-Corps项目开发了一种新型的非侵入性牙周成像设备，为牙周炎诊断提供了关键信息。双模超声和光声成像可以作为一个优越的替代目前的标准护理牙周评估。这种方法将超声波的分辨率与光学的对比度和光谱行为相结合。光声成像的牙龈可以详细描述整个口袋的轮廓，明显比传统探测少变化。这种模式为炎症的早期诊断提供了一个视角，这是无法通过直接的视觉临床评估。此外，超声成像可以量化牙龈厚度，从而决定最终的美学治疗效果。目前的临床附着丧失是根据牙骨质-牙釉质交界处（CEJ）的位置进行视觉测量的，只有在牙龈缘因疾病已经凹陷时才可见。相比之下，超声方法可以成像解剖标志，包括CEJ和牙龈边缘，以量化附着损失。这项计划的成功示范，可能会导致在牙龈炎的早期阶段准确诊断牙龈疾病，从而减少患晚期牙周炎和牙齿脱落的风险。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project may lead to an accurate and early detection of periodontal disease to reduce the pain and cost of dental care. Periodontal disease is common and often results in dental pain, tooth loss, reduced quality of life, and even systemic effects like cardiovascular disease. The current methods for periodontal evaluation use manual probing and visual inspection. These methods are often inaccurate and have poor reproducibility, as well as being time consuming and sometimes painful. While X-ray imaging captures detailed information about intra-oral hard tissues, more detailed information about soft tissue is missed. There is an essential unmet need for non-invasive imaging to assess dental health. This project will improve periodontal evaluation and diagnostics, treatment planning, and therapy monitoring. It may also make dental exams less painful for patients and more accurate for dentists.This I-Corps project develops a novel non-invasive periodontal imaging device that provides key information for periodontitis diagnosis. Dual modality ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging can be used as a superior alternative to the current standard of care for periodontal evaluation. This approach combines the resolution of ultrasound with the contrast and spectral behavior of optics. Photoacoustic imaging of the gingiva can detail the contours of the entire pocket with markedly less variability than conventional probing. This modality offers a perspective for early diagnosis of inflammation which is inaccessible by direct visual clinical assessment. In addition, ultrasound imaging can quantify gingival thickness which in turn, determines the final aesthetic treatment outcome. Current clinical attachment loss is visually measured based on cementoenamel junction (CEJ) location and it is only visible if gingival margin has already recessed due to disease. In contrast, the ultrasound approach can image anatomical landmarks including CEJ and gingival margin to quantify attachment loss. The successful demonstration of the proposed project may lead to an accurate diagnosis of gum disease in the early stage of gingivitis that reduces the risk of advanced periodontitis and tooth loss.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.