Potential caries assessment methods for teledentistry

Abstract

This chapter focuses on caries detection and optical based imaging tech-nologies that have the potential to be used for oral health screening of children and adults by adjunct personnel. Another focus is examining how teledentistry based caries detection needs to be integrated with risk assessment and topical manage-ment approaches. This chapter also focuses on the importance of using a teleden-tistry lesion scale (TLS) where assessment scores directly correlate to clinical recommendations in order to simply the work flow in teledentistry. This chapter discusses the evidence of scattering and fluorescence based optical caries detection systems in the context of teledentistry. Despite considerable advancements in the technology of early caries detection, advanced imaging and detection methods have not been shown to have markedly superior diagnostic values from simple visual image analysis for use in teledentistry.