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

龋齿仍然是儿童和成人中最普遍的慢性疾病，给家庭、政府和卫生保健系统带来了重大的经济和社会负担。在5-17岁的青少年中，蛀牙比哮喘、花粉热或慢性支气管炎更常见，并且是导致学生旷课和旷工的主要原因。到19岁时，68%的年轻人有过恒牙蛀牙的经历。在成年人中也观察到类似的趋势（20至64岁的成年人中有92%的人在恒牙上有蛀牙）。龋齿的流行表明，由于临床检测工具和技术对早期龋齿不敏感，在目前的牙科护理标准中，该疾病没有得到有效管理。该项目旨在开发一种高分辨率的临床设备，用于使用激光和红外相机检测和三维绘制早期龋齿。该提议的设备有望在病变仍可再矿化或愈合的早期阶段显示牙齿脱矿，为蛀牙创造一种无痛、经济有效和非侵入性的治疗方法，而不是传统的钻孔和填充方法。这项研究的结果将是广泛有用的，不仅作为早期的牙科诊断成像技术为加拿大人，而且普遍的牙科研究人员开展广泛的研究主题在牙科。早期发现牙齿的优点包括：增加再矿化成功的机会，减少蛀牙的风险和降低治疗费用。

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.