Study of the pulp tissue vitality by spectroscopy and photonic imaging

• Grant number: 12/50593-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: June 01, 2013
• End date: May 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Biomedical Engineering - Bioengineering
• Agreement: CNPq - First Projects Program
• Principal Investigator: Emery Cleiton Cabral Correia Lins
• Grantee: Emery Cleiton Cabral Correia Lins
• Host Institution: Centro de Engenharia, Modelagem e Ciências Sociais Aplicadas (CECS). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In day-a-day of dental offices the evaluation of the pulp tissue vitality is a strong evidence about a permanent damage inside the tooth, and gives the clinician tools for deciding about the treatment for patient. The protocol for pulp status diagnosis takes into account the analysis of the local pain, the response to cool and hot and the blood flux of dental pulp. Unfortunately the result of sensitivity tests depends on the subjective interpretation of pain by patient while the blood flux test depends on the dental tissue width and placement of instrument probe; all of them increase the tax of false diagnoses. In this aspect a technique for objective analyses would be recommended and could be useful as a tool for diagnostic. Dental transillumination is a technique which captures images of internal structures of teeth based on detecting the infrared radiation transmitted throughout the element. It has been used successfully in detecting early decay and can be exploited as an alternative technique for health diagnosis of pulp. This propose of research is to perform experiments of basic science and application studding dental transillumination as a tool for optical diagnostic of pulp tissue vitality. Results may evidence a new optical technique for discriminating the status of pulp tissue. Two answers should be answered to achieve such objective: if there is viability to capture images of pulp chambers and root canals using near infrared radiations and if optical properties of pulp tissue at near infrared spectrum could be exploited to discriminate health tissue to necrosis. First question will be answered with an experiment of near infrared spectroscopy in slices of tooth tissue which could reveal the limitations of imaging internal structures of tooth induced by the optical properties and thickness of dental tissues. Since dental tissues scatter radiation strongly, this experiment shows us the parameters of illumination and detection in which the amount of ballistic photons is enough to compose an image. To answer the second question an experiment of near infrared spectroscopy and spectral imaging of sound human tooth will be performed aiming to feature the pulp vitality and to confront this information with clinical tests. For this experiment specimens will be fixed for spectral imaging of dental pulp chamber and root canals; following the pulp tissue is removed from specimen to perform the near infrared spectroscopy of tissue and histology. Here, histology is the gold-standard of pulp tissue status. (AU)