Influence of tooth-surface hydration conditions on optical coherence-tomography imaging

Abstract Objectives This study examined the influence of tooth-surface hydration conditions on optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging. Methods Emitted light was coupled in a single-mode fibre-optic Michelson interferometer, and delivered to a sample and a reference mirror mounted on a linearly translating galvanometer driven by a triangular voltage waveform at a fringe-modulation frequency of 1 kHz. Backscattered light from the sample was coupled back to the system, digitised and used to create two-dimensional images together with beam scanning. OCT imaging of the occlusal surfaces of 10 extracted human teeth was performed soon after mounting (‘wet’ condition), immediately after air blowing for 10 s (‘air-blow’ condition), and at intervals thereafter (‘1-min’, ‘5-min’ and ‘10-min’ conditions, respectively). Results For the wet condition, three distinct peaks indicated the water surface, tooth surface and dentino-enamel junction. Backscattered light was detected at levels above noise, possibly causing grainy OCT images. By contrast, two distinct peaks indicating the tooth surface and dentino-enamel junction were observed for the air-blow and 10-min conditions, with greater signal intensities for the latter. The intensity was lower for the air-blow condition than the wet condition. The signal intensities decreased during storage in air at room temperature. Conclusion Tooth-substrate hydration conditions thus appeared to influence time domain-OCT imaging.