Defects detection in dentistry: designing a graphene multi-layered based plasmonic sensor

Abstract

Dental Restorative materials play a very important role in solving the issue of sensitivity in human teeth. Many such materials, based on their respective optical properties, are considered for various usages viz. cavity treatment, reparation of cracked or broken teeth, detection of plague formation, etc. A new approach to study the suitability of different restorative materials for dentistry application is timely. Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), being an optical phenomenon, has the capability to analyze the optical properties which may be used for Bio-medical Applications also. Considering the absorption behavior of Graphene material, the same can also be applied for detecting any plague formation in the essential components of a human teeth viz. Enamel, Dentin and Cementum. Reflectivity, Sensitivity calculations and the correlation between refractive index of different dental restorative materials and their concentration percentage have been tabulated in this manuscript. SPR curves have been obtained using MATLAB environment and Characteristic Transfer Matrix (CTM). The proper explanation of the above is discussed in detail. A new theoretical approach to detect the teeth-health with less-harmful (without X-ray source) technique has been proposed. Graphene layers play an important role as a bio-molecular recognition element and supports the restorative materials to enhance its detection features. A new technique is considered to determine the quality (cavity formation and others) of teeth-hygiene using less health-hazard radiation. LASER beam-based surface plasmon resonance phenomenon is projected here to identify the tooth condition, which will be implemented for the application purpose.