Assessment of Early Dental Caries by Using Optical Coherence Tomography / 치위생과학회지

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to assess the correlation between integrated mineral loss (volume % mineral×µm, ΔZ(TMR)) determined using transverse microradiography (TMR) and integrated reflectivity (dB×µm, ΔR(OCT)) determined using optical coherence tomography (OCT) for detecting early dental caries with lesion depth more than 200 µm. Sixty tooth specimens were made from sound bovine teeth. They were immersed in a demineralized solution for 20, 30, and 40 days. The ΔR(OCT) was obtained from the cross-sectional OCT image. The ΔZ(TMR) was obtained from the TMR image. The correlation between ΔR(OCT) and ΔZ(TMR) was examined using Pearson correlation. The Bland-Altman plot was constructed using the ΔR(OCT) and ΔZ(TMR) values. A significant correlation between ΔR(OCT) and ΔZ(TMR) was confirmed (r=0.491, p=0.003). Moreover, most of the difference between ΔR(OCT) and ΔZ(TMR) was included in the error section of the Bland-Altman plot. Therefore, OCT could be used as a substitute for TMR when analyzing mineral loss in early dental caries.