Microcomputed tomography in qualitative and quantitative evaluation of dental enamel demineralization

Abstract

This paper focused on employing microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) to improve the identification of early caries affecting permanent molars' chewing surface in children undergoing eruption. A high-resolution microCT system Skyscan 1176 was used to examine 83 molars extracted (for orthodontic reasons) from children aged 8-11. Out of the total number of the teeth, the following groups were classified - teeth bearing no signs of demineralization, and teeth with carious lesions coming to the stages of white, light brown, brown, and black spots. Reconstructed 2D and 3D images were used to identify areas in the outer, middle and inner third of the enamel, which were followed with calculation of the X-ray density average values using the CTvox software. Given the microCT outcomes, the following descending-order sequence was identified in terms of the optical density factors: healthy enamel - white spot caries - light-brown spot caries - brown spot caries - black spot caries