Occasionally, your tooth decay is too obvious: you have pain or dark spots on your teeth. But in other cases, you may not even know what's the problem until you see your dentist.
That's because your dentist can often detect early changes in teeth before teeth develop. At first, the tooth structure is softened. White spots sometimes appear.
How can your dentist discover these early changes in your teeth that can cause tooth decay? The traditional method is to use dental equipment X-rays or check your teeth and use explorer, metal tools to finish at one point. If the explorer "sticks" to the teeth, it can cause early damage to the tooth structure.
Now, newer technologies are available and are being used by some dentists. Are these devices better than a pair of experienced eyes, explorers and X-ray machines? If your dentist discovers signs of premature aging, does it need immediate treatment?
Digital Imaging Optical Transmission Lighting (DIFOTI)
DIFOTI technology uses your computer to collect the images of your teeth while light shines behind them. Softened (softened) areas of teeth may appear darker than healthy areas, so dentists can use these images to help them spot early problems. This technique is similar to X-ray but does not use radiation.
Acquiring images with DIFOTI requires more time than X-rays because the camera must be accurately placed on each tooth to capture the image. This technique is relatively easy to use, but these images still have to be explained by the dentist, leaving a different opinion.
Digital Imaging: DIAGNOdent
DIAGNOdent uses lasers to gather information. There is a hand-held laser probe on each tooth. The laser beam is absorbed by each tooth and leaves the tooth again as fluorescence. Solid tooth structure emits little fluorescence, but damaged parts of the teeth and bacteria release more. The information from each tooth is sent to the control unit, which looks like a digital clock radio.
Studies have found that this technique can help diagnose early decay in the outer layer of the inner layer (enamel) of the tooth (dentin), the visible layer (enamel) development. DIAGNOdent can also be used to track suspicious teeth or teeth and see if values change. Its manufacturer claims that the device is 90% accurate.
Quantitative light-induced fluorescence (QLF)
Among the three dental supplies technologies, QLF is the latest. It uses light sources, cameras, fluorescent dyes and computer software. The camera takes an image of each tooth, software analyzes the image and provides information about possible mineral losses.
This technique can detect early decay in primary (infant) and permanent teeth, as well as early decay near fillings, crowns, or orthodontic hardware.
QLF is useful for finding dental caries in high-risk groups and for confirming the health of teeth in low-risk populations. However, it may miss early declines in high-risk groups and may identify low-risk groups as declining times.
