Imaging natural and artificial demineralization on dentin surfaces with polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography.

The purpose of this study was to assess the potential of polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) to measure non-destructively the severity of natural and artificial caries lesions in dentin and determine the efficacy of intervention with anti-caries agents. Although several studies have demonstrated the utility of PS-OCT to image caries lesions in enamel and to quantify the lesion severity, only a few studies have focused on lesions in dentin. In this study images of natural root caries lesions on extracted human teeth were acquired with PS-OCT. In addition artificial lesions were produced in dentin after 12 days of exposure to a demineralization solution at a pH of 5.0. Before exposure, three incisions were made on the sample surfaces using Er:YAG laser irradiation and selected areas were treated with topical fluoride. PS-OCT images were acquired using a high power (45-mw) 1310-nm superluminescent diode with a bandwidth of 35-nm. PS-OCT was able to measure demineralization in dentin to a depth of ~ 1 mm. Polarized light microscopy and microradiography were used to measure lesion severity on histological thin sections for comparison. PS-OCT successfully measured the inhibition of demineralization by topical fluoride. Er:YAG laser irradiation did not significantly increase or decrease the rate of dentin demineralization.