The Calcivis story - enamel caries activity assessment from technology to practice.

The Calcivis story is one of innovation and collaboration to deliver new technology capable of helping dentists improve patient care through solving an unmet clinical need in assessing the activity of caries lesions in enamel. Presently, there is no system routinely used in dental practice that can, in a single visit, determine whether a non-cavitated caries lesion is active or not. Calcivis has evolved since 2005, when a potential link between basic science in luminescence and differentiating initial-stage caries lesions that are actively demineralising and likely to progress, from other lesions which are inactive and currently do not need interventive care, was recognised.

Clinical validation of a novel bioluminescence imaging technology for aiding the assessment of carious lesion activity status.

Objectives: Clinical validation of a bioluminescence imaging system (Cis) as measured by the level of agreement between clinician visual and tactile assessment of carious lesion presence and activity and the presence/absence of elevated luminescence on a tooth surface determined from intraoral image mapping.

Materials And Methods: This was a regulatory clinical study designed in consultation with the FDA. The design was a prospective, five-investigator, nonrandomized, post-approval, clinical study utilizing the Cis to provide images of elevated calcium ion concentration (indicative of active demineralization) on tooth surfaces via use of a photoprotein.

Initial investigations of a novel bioluminescence method for imaging dental demineralization.

Objectives: In this in vitro study, a bioluminescent marker was investigated for its potential to illuminate the assessment of dental caries and dental erosion, which are significant clinical and public health problems, through its binding of those ions, notably Ca , known to be released during the process of demineralization.

Materials And Methods: The light output from the selected bioluminescent marker was investigated in several experiments, including: (a)contact with a range of Ca ion concentrations; (b) treatment of extracted teeth with solutions of differing pH, followed by application of the bioluminescence marker to assess Ca ion release; and (c) application of the marker to freshly extracted teeth with natural and artificially created caries lesions on occlusal and smooth surfaces to image the Ca ion distribution.

Results: The results of: experiment (a) showed that the light output from the marker increases with increasing Ca concentration and of experiment (b) showed increases in light being observed as increasingly acidic solutions were applied.