Interproximal tooth defects detection

摘要

There is provided a method for detecting interproximal tooth defects such as caries by injecting light at one or more wavelengths into a tooth and detecting reflected/diffracted light or emitted fluorescence. The detected light intensity is characteristic of a healthy or diseased tooth in the interproximal area.

主权项

1. A method for detection of an interproximal defect in a tooth, comprising:
injecting incident light at one or more wavelengths at a mesial or distal region of an occlusal surface of said tooth, such that said incident light can reach said interproximal defect on an interproximal surface substantially through enamel structure; detecting at a detection site on said occlusal surface reflected light; and analyzing said reflected light to provide a signal indicating a presence of said interproximal defect wherein said analyzing comprises obtaining an intensity of said detected light and comparing said intensity with reference intensities obtained from healthy interproximal tooth regions and interproximal tooth regions exhibiting defects wherein light reflected from said regions exhibiting defect is greater than said healthy interproximal tooth regions.