Diagnosis of occlusal caries lesions in deciduous molars by coherent light scattering pattern speckle.

BACKGROUND: This study presents the correlation between laser speckle images and detection of incipient caries lesions from changs in the microstructure of the surface of tooth enamel.

METHODS: We used 30 healthy deciduous molar teeth collected from the Biobank Human Teeth, Faculty of Dentistry, University of São Paulo who had carious lesions induced by the pH cycling method. The samples were evaluated for the diagnosis of caries by two methods ICDAS and speckle pattern of coherent light scattering after 5, 10 and 15days and the results were statistically analyzed using α=0.05 significance level.

RESULTS: A significant difference was observed between the image of the speckle scattering of healthy and injured areas within the 3 study groups, but not when comparing the three groups, showing us that it is an innovative technique that needs further study, but can be used as a diagnostic method for the detection of early caries lesions.

CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that the analysis of scattering speckle pattern is a diagnostic technique that provides information on the microstructure of the surface of tooth enamel which has sensitivity for detection of incipient caries lesions.