Also, for health and safety reasons, X-rays cannot be given routinely. Dental researchers have been seeking alternative caries diagnostic methods for more than a decade. Detecting dental caries in its early stages means that through a change in diet and fluoride exposure the patient's tooth can remineralise and so regain its normal strength and, therefore, avoid the need for a filling. What every dentist wants is a technique that will give them better information on the state of the caries without causing any damage and that is what the novel laser detection systems aim to provide. Two different systems are, in fact, being developed.
Confocal microscopy allows the dentist to see the diseased tissue fluorescing in green.
This will give patients the best chance of preventative treatment by harnessing the body's own recovery techniques. Neither of us could have done it without the other. We have the technology that is a solution looking for a problem. At the Dental School they have the knowledge of the clinical demand for which we can devise practical solutions. Carious tissue would behave differently from healthy tissue, fluorescing less in the green part of the spectrum.