Design, Test and Evaluation of a Dental Fluorescence Camera

Abstract

Dental diseases are ranked the third disaster after cancer and cardiovascular by World Health Organization. The early diagnosis of decay is important for children and adults to treat and prevent diseases. In this study, a fluorescence device was designed and manufactured for this purpose. Device used a 380-nm LED, which stimulates the luminescence of porphyrins—a product of Streptococcus Mutans bacteria in plaque or caries. This equipment was included camera which can record images in real time as well as the fluorescence image was processed by a designed software. The test results showed that the fluorescence camera can detect numerous types of the carious lesions including dental plaque, dental caries, hidden caries and the early stage of caries. In this research, a statistic software was applied for this research in order to show the device’s sensitivity and specificity.