New tool uses blue fluorescent light to detect dental problems

ALMOST everyone has experienced enduring pain from a toothache. After which, a trip to the dentist is most often warranted.

Instead of shining white light to illuminate the surface of a patient’s teeth, however, dentist Tan Wee Yang uses a tool that shines blue fluorescent light into their mouths to detect tooth decay.

SoproLife – a light-induced fluorescence evaluator developed by Sopro-Acteon Imaging from France – helps dentists in the diagnosis and treatment of cavities. It uses a light-emitting diode (LED) camera that can illuminate tooth surfaces within a radiation band located in the visible spectrum.

This provides an anatomical image superimposed on an auto- fluorescence image emitted by the illuminated teeth.
 
The wavelength of the auto-fluorescence signal varies according to the density and chemical composition of the tissue on the tooth’s surface and sub-surface.

Any carious lesion or diseased tissue – the result of a tooth decay – will be detected by variations in the autofluorescence of the tooth’s tissues in relation to a healthy area. The presence of cavities is then shown by red spots on the screen.

SoproLife captures the information in real time on an LED screen and works the same way as an intra-oral camera, allowing the patient to see what the dentist sees.

Dr Tan, owner of the ACE Family Dental Care at New Upper Changi Road, said: “This rules out any doubt from the patient’s mind that there is tooth decay and makes communication on dental health much easier.”

While Dr Tan continues to use a dental probe along with SoproLife to check for decay, he thinks the instrument greatly reduces the subjectivity in diagnosis, especially in areas that X-ray can miss.

Patients are sometimes required to go for X-ray during a diagnosis for tooth decay. However, decays in the occlusal (biting surface) and interproximal areas between the teeth can escape undetected in an X-ray scan.

Dr Tan said the new tool can reduce X-ray exposure for patients and improve dentists’ clinical performance.

SoproLife also provides a magnification range of more than 50 times of the tooth surface on the screen using three illumination modes: daylight, diagnostic and treatment.

In daylight mode, it compares images in blue light to images under white light, allowing observation of the
structures surrounding the tooth.

In diagnostic mode, it accurately identifies the location of a decayed lesion, and in the treatment mode, it focuses on dentine to aid dentists in the choice of treatment to be given.

Along with other dental surgical equipment, SoproLife was showcased at last month’s trade fair of the sixth International Dental Exhibition and Meeting (Idem).

Dr Tan said besides coming in handy at the diagnosis stage, SoproLife can help him conserve a patient’s tooth structure during the treatment stage.

“It allows me to differentiate healthy from infected tissue in order to remove only the diseased tissue, so that I do not need to drill further,” he said. “It is a minimally invasive dentistry approach which serves only to benefit patients.”

While most of the innovations on display at Idem were targeted at dentists, a three-headed toothbrush which aims to clean three surfaces of the tooth at the same time was launched for the dentistry community.

Called Dr Barman’s Superbrush, it purportedly brushes the occlusal (contacting surfaces of opposing teeth), buccal (outer) and lingual (inner) surfaces of the teeth.

Clinical studies in Europe showed that it removes up to 20 per cent more plaque than the conventional single-headed toothbrush and helps reduce gum bleeding.
 
Dr Bryian Wong, product consultant for Dr Barman’s SuperBrush series, said while the toothbrush was initially designed for children’s use as they are less familiar with the correct brushing techniques, there are now versions of the Superbrush for adults too. 

He said: “My orthodontic patients who have to contend brushing with obstruction from their braces also use the Superbrush to their delight.”