Siew Bernard, Enax Joachim, Meyer Frederic
Smilefocus, Camden Medical Centre, Singapore, Singapore.
Research Department, Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH & Co. KG, Bielefeld, Germany.
Eur J Dent. 2024 Jul;18(3):957-962. doi: 10.1055/s-0044-1782192. Epub 2024 May 2.
Dental caries remains one of the main reasons patients seeing their dentist. They either show up for preventive measures, diagnostics, or treatment of present caries lesions. To date, diagnostics are performed visually, supported by using bitewing radiographs. While radiographic diagnostics should only be performed on a biannual basis, and some caries process will not be seen with visual diagnostics, there remains a lack in regular checkups. Therefore, different technical applications can be used for regular diagnostics. One of those is the near-infrared imaging (NIRI) technology. In this case report, a patient presented with incipient caries lesions. These lesions were diagnosed visually, radiographically, and using NIRI. After diagnosis of incipient caries lesions, the patient was advised to use a hydroxyapatite toothpaste and a hydroxyapatite gel for the remineralization of the lesions and prevention of caries progression. The patient was followed up for 6 months with regular checkups in between. Visual diagnostics and NIRI were used to detecting the caries progress. After 6 months, bitewing radiographs were used in addition. In this clinical investigation we were able to show for the first time that NIRI and bitewing radiographs are able to detect and follow incipient caries lesions. Additionally, this study highlights that hydroxyapatite-containing oral care products are able to arrest and remineralize the caries process.
龋齿仍然是患者看牙医的主要原因之一。他们要么是为了预防措施、诊断，要么是为了治疗现有的龋齿病变而来。迄今为止，诊断是通过目视进行的，并辅以咬合翼片X光检查。虽然X光诊断应该每半年进行一次，而且有些龋齿病变通过目视诊断是看不到的，但定期检查仍然存在不足。因此，可以使用不同的技术应用进行定期诊断。其中之一是近红外成像（NIRI）技术。在本病例报告中，一名患者出现了早期龋齿病变。这些病变通过目视、X光检查以及使用NIRI进行了诊断。在诊断出早期龋齿病变后，建议患者使用羟基磷灰石牙膏和羟基磷灰石凝胶来使病变再矿化并预防龋齿进展。对该患者进行了6个月的随访，期间进行定期检查。使用目视诊断和NIRI来检测龋齿进展。6个月后，还使用了咬合翼片X光检查。在这项临床研究中，我们首次能够证明NIRI和咬合翼片X光检查能够检测并跟踪早期龋齿病变。此外，这项研究强调含羟基磷灰石的口腔护理产品能够阻止龋齿进程并使其再矿化。
