Long-Wavelength Infrared Thermophotonic Imaging of Demineralization in Dental Hard Tissue

Early detection of the most prevalent oral disease worldwide, i.e., dental caries, still remains as one of the major challenges in Dentistry. Current dental standard of care relies on caries detection methods which lack the sufficient specificity and sensitivity to detect caries at early stages of formation when they can be healed. In this thesis, a clinically and commercially viable thermophotonic imaging (TPI) technology capable of detecting early enamel caries using an inexpensive long-wavelength infrared (LWIR, 8-14m) camera is presented. Through theoretical modelling and experiments on standard samples, the enhanced diagnostic contrast in LWIR detection compared to existing MWIR detection technologies is verified. Diagnostic performance of the system and its detection threshold are experimentally evaluated by monitoring the inception and progression of artificially-induced occlusal and proximal caries as well as natural early caries. The results are suggestive of the suitability of the developed LWIR system for detecting early dental caries.