The optical properties of human dentin can change markedly due to aging, friction from opposing teeth, and acute trauma, resulting in the formation of transparent or sclerotic dentin with increased mineral density. The objective of this study was to determine the optical attenuation coefficient of human dentin tissues with different mineral densities in the near-infrared (NIR) spectral regions from 1300-2200 nm using NIR transillumination and optical coherence tomography (OCT). N=50 dentin samples of varying opacities were obtained by sectioning whole extracted teeth into ~ 150 μm transverse sections at the cemento-enamel junction or the apical root. Transillumination images were acquired with a NIR camera and attenuation measurements were acquired at various NIR wavelengths using a NIR sensitive photodiode. Samples were imaged with transverse microradiography (gold standard) in order to determine the mineral density of each sample.

Date Published: 14 February 2017
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 10044, Lasers in Dentistry XXIII, 100440M (14 February 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2256745

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10044:
Lasers in Dentistry XXIII
Peter Rechmann; Daniel Fried, Editor(s)