Yakubu Emmanuel, Li Bolan, Duan Yuanyuan, Yang Shan
Department of Chemistry, Physics and Atmospheric Science, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA.
Centrillion Technologies, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Biomed Opt Express. 2018 Nov 7;9(12):6009-6016. doi: 10.1364/BOE.9.006009. eCollection 2018 Dec 1.
Early detection of dental caries is critical for avoiding more invasive and advanced treatment at a later stage. However, currently available techniques are unsatisfactory for early detection. Raman spectroscopy is known to have both high sensitivity and specificity in the analysis of mineral content in a tooth; but translating Raman spectroscopy to clinical caries detection remains a challenge. In this study, we report a full-scale Raman imaging system that can provide fast full-scale (~7 mm in diameter) tooth mineral analysis which could be feasible for clinical application. The results show that the Raman imaging system could not only confirm carious lesions that are obvious to the naked eye but also identify those which are not conclusive to traditional visual examination and probing.
早期发现龋齿对于避免后期进行更具侵入性的高级治疗至关重要。然而，目前可用的技术在早期检测方面并不令人满意。已知拉曼光谱在分析牙齿中的矿物质含量方面具有高灵敏度和特异性；但将拉曼光谱应用于临床龋齿检测仍然是一项挑战。在本研究中，我们报告了一种全尺寸拉曼成像系统，该系统可以提供快速的全尺寸（直径约7毫米）牙齿矿物质分析，这对于临床应用可能是可行的。结果表明，拉曼成像系统不仅可以确认肉眼明显可见的龋损，还可以识别那些传统视觉检查和探查无法确定的龋损。
