Developing an Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) based handheld intraoral scanner for dentistry

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PROJECT SUMMARY Cyberdontics is revolutionizing the dental industry by developing a novel intraoral scanner that will enable affordable and efficient dental care. The market for dental services in the US is valued at $109 billion, but only 60% of Americans seek professional dental care. Of the patients that visit a dentist, they accept the ideal dental treatment plan only 28% of the time. The main reasons cited for patients declining care are cost, the inconvenience of multiple and lengthy dental appointments, patients believing they have good oral health when they do not, and insurers not agreeing with the need for care. Avoiding the dentist for these reasons usually results in dental disease progression, periodontal disease, and other oral problems, which impact patient systemic health. Therefore, there is a critical need to reduce the cost of care, shorten visits, and help patients and insurers understand the patient has a dental problem so they can accept care. Cyberdontics is adapting optical coherence tomography (OCT), a fast, non-ionizing, and highly sensitive and specific approach, for dental applications by creating an ultra-fast frame-capture-time 3D swept source (SS) OCT intraoral scanner that has usability comparable to today’s intraoral surface scanners. This will replace current OCT techniques, which are not adapted to the dental clinic as they slower, more involved, and less accurate. Cyberdontics is committed to providing accessible and effective dental care. In this Direct to Phase II proposal, Cyberdontics will develop their ultra-fast frame-capture-time 3D SS-OCT scanner by increasing its performance and effectiveness. They will upgrade the laser, digitizer, and processing pipeline, as well as evaluate and optimize various algorithms to improve the accuracy of the scan. Additionally, they will conduct tests on human subjects to compare the performance of their scanner to traditional methods and assess its effectiveness in guiding the placement of subgingival crowns. Upon completion of this work, Cyberdontics will be well-positioned to pursue commercialization of their innovative imaging solution.