Optical Diagnostics for Classifying Stages of Dental Erythema

摘要

Periodontal disease is a term used to describe an inflammatory disease affecting the tissues surrounding and supporting the teeth. Periodontal diseases are some of the most common chronic disorders, which affect humans in all parts of the world. Treatment usually involves the removal of plaque and calculus by scaling and polishing the tooth. In some cases a surgical reduction of hyperplastic tissue, may also be required. In addition, periodontitis is a risk factor for systemic disorders such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Current detection methods are qualitative, inaccurate, and often do not detect the periodontal disease in its early, reversible stages. Therefore, an early detection method should be implemented identifying the relationship of periodontal disease with erythema. In order to achieve this purpose we are developing an optical erythema meter to diagnose the periodontal disease in its reversible, gingival stage. The discrimination between healthy and diseased gum tissue was made by using the reflection of two illuminating wavelengths provided by light emitting diodes operating at wavelengths that target the absorption and reflection spectra of the highlights of each particular tissue type (healthy or diseased, and what kind of disease). Three different color gels could successfully be distinguished with a statistical significance of P < 0.05.