Complementarity of OCT and radiography for imaging investigations in dentistry

There are numerous dental conditions that can appear in the human mouth, from bone diseases like periodontitis or bone loss produced by a massive infection, to common issues like dental cavities. We explored the possible range of dental (and associated bone) conditions using Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) versus the gold standard of radiological investigations [Erdelyi R.A., Duma V.-F., et al, Materials 13, 4825, 2020]. Clinical and imaging investigations have been performed on real-life patients. Advantages and limitations of using these two imaging techniques were deduced, based on the fact that OCT has better resolution than radiographs (2 to 10 μm versus 75 to 150 μm, respectively), while radiography can perform a complete image of the entire mouth, in contrast to OCT, which has a limited penetration, of only 1 to 2 mm in tooth or soft tissue. The analyses of a range of dental conditions with both techniques clarified when it is better to choose a specific method: (i) for bone diseases, radiographs are more appropriate because they provide images of the entire mouth in one exposure and 3D images of dental conditions; (ii) OCT can spot small cavities in early stages, while radiographs cannot; (iii) measurements performed on cavities spotted with both imaging techniques proved that OCT can provide accurate dimensions, with high contrast and contrast-to-noise ratio. Thus, a classification of each of the two types of imaging techniques for each possible dental condition was obtained. A complementarity of OCT and radiography for investigations in dentistry was concluded.