We present here the first in vivo optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of human dental tissue. A novel dental optical coherence tomography system has been developed. This system incorporates the interferometer sample arm and transverse scanning optics into a handpiece that can be used intraorally to image human dental tissues. The average imaging depth of this system varied from 3 mm in hard tissues to 1.5 mm in soft tissues. We discuss the application of this imaging system for dentistry and illustrate the potential of our dental OCT system for diagnosis of periodontal disease, detection of caries, and evaluation of dental restorations.

An improved polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (OCT) system is developed and used to measure birefringence in porcine myocardium tissue and produce two-dimensional birefringence mapping of the tissue. Signal-to-noise issues that cause systematic measurement errors are analyzed to determine the regime in which such measurements are accurate. The advantage of polarization-sensitive OCT systems over standard OCT systems in avoiding image artifacts caused by birefringence is also demonstrated.

We have developed a prototype optical coherence tomography (OCT) system for the imaging of hard and soft tissue in the oral cavity. High-resolution images of in vitro porcine periodontal tissues have been obtained with this system. The images clearly show the enamel-cementum and the gingiva-tooth interfaces, indicating OCT is a potentially useful technique for diagnosis of periodontal diseases. To our knowledge, this is the first application of OCT for imaging biologic hard tissue.

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