Patent ID: 7564565
Filing Date: 2009-07-21
Classification: A61B,A61C,G01B,G01J,G01N

Abstract:
1. A dental optical coherence tomography device, comprising: wavelength-tunable light generating means; main dividing means for dividing the light from said wavelength-tunable light generating means into measurement light and reference light; measurement light irradiating means for irradiating along an optical axis a tooth in an oral cavity with said measurement light divided by said main dividing means, wherein said measurement light irradiated along said optical axis is step-wised variable in wavelength; signal light collecting means for collecting the signal light that is reflected by the tooth following the irradiation of said tooth during the scanning period; combining means for combining the signal light collected by said signal light collecting means and said reference light divided by said main dividing means; and computation control means for controlling said wavelength-tunable light generating means so that said light from said wavelength-tunable light generating means has the intended wavelength range and for finding the characteristics of said tooth on the basis of the wavelength range of the light from said wavelength-tunable light generating means and the intensity of the light combined by said combining means, wherein said computation control means control said wavelength-tunable light generating means so that light of a plurality of different wavelength ranges is output and find the characteristics of said tooth by finding the intensity of the light combined by said combining means for each wavelength range.