Assessment of the activity of secondary caries lesions with short-wavelength infrared, thermal, and optical coherence tomographic imaging.

: Leakage in the interfaces between restorative materials and tooth structure allows for fluid and bacterial acid infiltration, causing restoration failure due to secondary caries. Dentists spend more time replacing composite restorations than placing new ones. Previous and studies on enamel and root surfaces using shortwave-infrared (SWIR) and thermal imaging during dehydration with forced air have been promising for assessing lesion activity.

Assessing lesion activity of secondary lesions on extracted teeth by thermal dehydration measurement and optical coherence tomography.

Secondary caries occurs when leakage in the interfaces between restorative materials and tooth structure allow fluid and bacterial acid infiltration. Thermal imaging coupled with dehydration can be used to measure this increase in fluid permeability for secondary lesions in teeth. Thermal imaging exploits the temperature change due to water evaporation during dehydration to measure the rate of water diffusion from porous lesion areas.