Imaging early demineralization with PS-OCT.

New methods are needed for the nondestructive measurement of tooth demineralization and remineralization to monitor the progression of incipient caries lesions (tooth decay) for effective nonsurgical intervention and to evaluate the performance of anti-caries treatments such as chemical treatments or laser irradiation. Studies have shown that optical coherence tomography (OCT) has great potential to fulfill this role since it can be used to measure the depth and severity of early lesions with an axial resolution exceeding 10-μm, it is easy to apply in vivo and it can be used to image the convoluted topography of tooth occlusal surfaces. In this paper we attempt to determine the earliest stage at which we can detect significant differences in lesion severity. Automated methods of analysis were used to measure the depth and severity of demineralized bovine enamel produced using a simulated caries model that emulates demineralization in the mouth. Significant differences in the depth and integrated reflectivity from the lesions were detected after only a few hours of demineralization. These results demonstrate that cross polarization OCT is ideally suited for the nondestructive assessment of early demineralization.