Monte Carlo Simulation of Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy for 3D Modeling of Dental Tissues

Abstract

Three-dimensional precise models of teeth are critical for a variety of dental procedures, including orthodontics, prosthodontics, and implantology. While X-ray-based imaging devices are commonly used to obtain anatomical information about teeth, optical devices offer a promising alternative for acquiring 3D data of teeth without exposing patients to harmful radiation. Previous research has not examined the optical interactions with all dental tissue compartments nor provided a thorough analysis of detected signals at various boundary conditions for both transmittance and reflectance modes. To address this gap, a GPU-based Monte Carlo (MC) method has been utilized to assess the feasibility of diffuse optical spectroscopy (DOS) systems operating at 633 nm and 1310 nm wavelengths for simulating light-tissue interactions in a 3D tooth model. The results show that the system’s sensitivity to detect pulp signals at both 633 nm and 1310 nm wavelengths is higher in the transmittance compared with that in the reflectance mode. Analyzing the recorded absorbance, reflectance, and transmittance data verified that surface reflection at boundaries can improve the detected signal, especially from the pulp region in both reflectance and transmittance DOS systems. These findings could ultimately lead to more accurate and effective dental diagnosis and treatment.

scatterBrains: an open database of human head models and companion optode locations for realistic Monte Carlo photon simulations

“… 1 , 2 Advances in these algorithms have allowed for modeling increasingly complex transport geometries or tissue types 3 – 9 while drastically reducing the runtime through parallel or cloud computing architectures. 10 – 14 Such developments have spawned new studies that use MC simulations to, among many other efforts, investigate potential tissue areas to image, 15 – 18 determine the promise of new imaging modalities, 19 – 22 optimize hardware in existing modalities, 23 – 28 improve recovery of desired biomarkers, 29 , 30 and further elucidate the physical principles behind light-tissue interaction. 31 – 35 This list is far from exhaustive—the number of distinctive studies exploiting MC simulations has truly burgeoned across subfields in the past couple of decades.…”