Measurement of enamel demineralization using microradiography and confocal microscopy. A correlation study.

Substantial amounts of tooth minerals are lost during dental caries formation. Transversal microradiography, a well-accepted method used to quantify mineral loss, is a time-consuming technique which requires a thin enamel section (100 microns) and involves the use of x-rays. In an attempt to solve these difficulties, a procedure has been developed in which a human tooth specimen with demineralized enamel is cut in half (HT), stained with a fluorescent dye (rhodamine B) and analyzed using a laser scanning confocal microscope. A series of three studies was conducted to correlate measurements of enamel demineralization obtained from enamel thin (100 microns) sections (TS) using transversal microradiography with three parameters (area of the lesion; total and average dye fluorescence intensities) measured on the same TS or on a thicker section (HT) of the same specimen by laser scanning confocal microscopy. Results showed that a 0.1 mM rhodamine B solution provided the most adequate imaging conditions for confocal microscopy. Pearson's correlation coefficients, calculated between microradiography and confocal microscopy data obtained using a 0.1 mM rhodamine B solution, were: delta Z vs. HT lesion area = 0.95; delta Z vs. HT total fluorescence = 0.80; delta Z vs. HT average fluorescence = 0.74; delta Z vs. TS lesion area = 0.95; delta Z vs. TS total fluorescence = 0.74; delta Z vs. TS average fluorescence = 0.55. All these correlations coefficients were statistically significant (p < 0.01). It is concluded that in enamel demineralization studies statistically significant correlations exist between parameters measured using transversal microradiography and parameters quantified using confocal microscopy.