Early detection of the carious conditions by laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy

摘要

The aim of this study was to investigate the natural intrinsic fluorescence in sound and diseased human teeth and the correspondence of such autofluorescence to the stages of the dental lesions. Direct visual examination was used for comparison. Different stages of caries lesions are detected, by using a nitrogen laser (337 nm), light - emitting diode (LED) (440 nm) and argon laser (488 nm). Besides caries, there were investigated samples of the fluorosa dentis and odontolithiasis, for better determination of the influence of other teeth pathologies over the teeth autofluorescence spectra. There was observed a significant decrease in the intensity of the autofluorescence signal in the case of caries. The carious lesions revealed characteristic emission of endogenous fiuorophores with fluorescence band in the red spectral region. Healthy hard dental tissue exhibited no emission bands in the red. An algorithm for early diagnosis is created on the basis of collected significant statistical material.