SBIR-STTR Award

Safe, cost-effective diagnosis and treatment of dental caries remain major public health concerns. This proposal applies new digital imaging and processing technology to dental transillumination - a technique that has good sensitivity for the detection of caries but which has not yet reached its full diagnostic potential. Our plan is to standardize transillumination and turn it into an advanced tool that provides safe, rapid, accurate and inexpensive diagnoses of caries. Our system will consist of a hand-held transillumination probe and solid-state camera, connected to a personal computer. In Phase I, we will test the feasibility of our optical approach, including choice of optimal wavelengths and illumination geometry, and will test alternative designs for acquiring high-resolution digitized images of carious lesions and surrounding structures in vitro. We also will implement software to process these images so as ultimately to provide the clinician with immediate operator-assisted diagnosis. During Phase II, in vivo data will be archived into a reference data base for determining discriminant parameters that indicate caries needing early remedial attention, and to identify high-risk cases. Phase II will emphasize the additional engineering needed to produce prototype devices suitable for commercial use in Phase III.National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR)

State-of -the-art digital imaging and processing technologies are applied to Fiber-Optic-Transillumination to achieve its full potential for the safe, cost-effective diagnosis and treatment of dental caries. The Phase 1 laboratory version of EOS's Digital Imaging Fiber Optic Transillumination (DIFOTT) device provides significant improvements to conventional transillumination. A monitor displays DIFOTT images, analyzed in real time, enabling dentists to: (acquire images under controlled, repeatable conditions; select digital image analysis methods, e.g. contrast enhancement between carious and sound tissue) DIFOTT provides significant information not available by X-ray, and likely to be missed by conventional transillumination without computer-assisted analysis. In Phase 2, (the reliability of DIFOTT will be examined, through tests in vitro and in vivo, for detection of frank, incipient and recurrent caries, on or near approximal, smooth, occlusal and/or root surfaces. ROC analyses will employ histology as the "gold standard.") Three clinical prototypes will be built, and evaluated at three clinical centers. The prototype will have a hand held probe, a fiber-optic coupled halogen light source to illuminate the tooth, and a solid-state imager. The attached computer (PC) provides image processing that facilitates both detection of incipient caries and monitoring of changes.Proposed commercial application:Potentially standard tool for safe, rapid, accurate computer-aided diagnosis and monitoring of caries by the average dental clinician, at costs comparable to radiography, and augmenting techniques. The domestic market for the device in Phase 3 consists of all 150,000+ dentists actively in practice in the US. In addition a substantial number of sales to dentists outside the US is expected.Thesaurus termsbiomedical equipment development, clinical biomedical equipment, computer assisted diagnosis, dental caries, diagnosis design /evaluation, digital imaging, noninvasive diagnosis charge coupled device camera, dental disorder diagnosis, dental visualization, early diagnosis, fiber optics, image enhancement bioengineering /biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering, clinical research, human subjectNational Institute of Dental Research (NIDR)