Applications of confocal scanning optical microscopy to dentistry.

Confocal optical microscopy is now a well recognised technique in the fields of biological and materials science. This type of light microscope can be considered as being midway between optical and electron microscopy. Confocal or scanning optical microscopes can make high resolution, thin, optical sections within semitransparent samples such as biological tissues. Surface images of samples can be produced which are similar in character to those of the SEM, but without many of the problems of specimen preparation. The improved resolution and removal of out-of-focus blur allows much more information to be gained from fluorescence microscopy techniques, with the images capable of 3-D reconstruction of the sample. There are basically two types of confocal optical microscope: the laser scanning type (CLSM) and the real-time direct view of tandem scanning microscopes (TSM). The former are best suited to immunofluorescence microscopy, whilst the latter are more appropriate for high-speed reflection imaging, having originally been developed for in vivo microscopy.