Development of a high-resolution photothermal coherence tomography clinical device for detection and 3-D mapping of early dental caries

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Dental caries remains the most prevalent chronic disease in both children and adults,imposing significant financial and societal burdens on families, governments, and health caresystems. Among 5-17 year olds, tooth decay is more common than asthma, hay fever orchronic bronchitis and is responsible for large numbers of days missed from school and work.By age 19, 68 percent of youth have experienced tooth decay in permanent teeth. Similartrends are observed in adults (92% of adults 20 to 64 have had dental caries in theirpermanent teeth). The prevalence of caries suggests that the disease is not being effectivelymanaged in the current standard of care in Dentistry due to insensitivity of clinical detectiontools and techniques to early caries. The proposed project aims to develop a high resolutionclinical device for detection and 3-D mapping of early dental caries using lasers and infraredcameras. The proposed device is expected to reveal dental demineralization at very earlystages when the lesion can still be remineralized or healed, creating a painless, cost-effectiveand non-invasive treatment for tooth decay instead of the conventional drilling and fillingapproach. The outcome of this research will be widely useful not only as an early dentalcaries diagnostic imaging technology for Canadians, but also universally to dentalresearchers for carrying out a broad spectrum of research themes in Dentistry. Early dentalcaries detection advantages include: increased chance of successful remineralization,decreased risk of cavities and reduced treatment costs.