The influence of different Cheek and lip retractors and emissivity on intraoral infrared thermography

To assess the influence of two conventional and one adapted cheek and lip retractors and three emissivity setting values on intraoral infrared thermography (IT) temperature values. The sample was composed by 50 volunteers. Three cheek and lip retractors were tested: Group 1 - flex retractor (FR); Group 2 - FR adapted with Styrofoam; Group 3 - U-type retractor (UR) for cheek and lip. All thermograms were acquired using FLIR T650 infrared camera. A set of three thermograms in frontal norm were acquired for each lip and cheek retractor at 0.91, 0.96 and 0.98Ɛ, with an interval of 15 minutes between each set of images to avoid thermal interference. All images were assessed by two observers. The ROIs' mean temperature of the four upper incisors were recorded. Two-way ANOVA and Sidak posttest were used for data assessment with a significance level of 5%. Group 3 showed higher mean temperature than groups 1 and 2 at all emissivity settings for all assessed teeth (p