Cross polarization optical coherence tomography for diagnosis of oral soft tissues

Non‐Invasive Periodontal Probing Through Fourier‐Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

“…OCT, on the other hand, reveals microstructural details of the periodontal soft tissues, providing information for controlling the volume of attached keratinized gingiva, as well as enabling the observation of periodontal structures that might be associated with inflammatory processes 23 . The enlargement of the gingival sulcus is an important predictor of the presence or absence of periodontal disease: in healthy conditions, free gingiva is very close to the tooth surface.…”

“…CAL and periodontal probing constitute the main diagnostic parameters of periodontal disease, as digitally measured by Schneider et al 45 OCT, on the other hand, reveals microstructural details of the periodontal soft tissues, providing information for controlling the volume of attached keratinized gingiva, as well as enabling the observation of periodontal structures that might be associated with inflammatory processes. 23 The enlargement of the gingival sulcus is an important predictor of the presence or absence of periodontal disease: in healthy conditions, free gingiva is very close to the tooth surface. Therefore, it offers the potential for accurately identifying active periodontitis before significant alveolar bone involvement occurs.…”

“…13 In dentistry, OCT studies in hard and soft tissues have been performed since 1998, 10 and they have been proposed to be an effective tool to evaluate early caries and caries-related issues [14][15][16][17][18][19] and oral cancer. 20 Some studies analyzed periodontal structures, suggesting the possibility of applying OCT to periodontal diagnostics, [21][22][23][24] but evidence is not yet sufficient, especially related to the gingival sulcus, which is an important parameter of periodontal health and disease. Furthermore, OCT has been applied to evaluate dental materials, [25][26][27][28] with the advantages of being a non-destructive imaging technology and rendering three-dimensional (3D) images in real-time acquisition mode.…”