Optical monitor of in vitro caries. A comparison with chemical and microradiographic determination of mineral loss in early lesions

The optical caries monitor is a nondestructive method to quantify light scattering in bulk dental enamel and early carious lesions. This paper describes a fiber-optic version of the instrument which potentially may be used in the mouth. It is compared with the calcium loss from softening and subsurface type in vitro lesions in bovine enamel. Calcium loss is determined by both chemical methods and microradiography. The results show that the monitor correlates well (r =0.94) with calcium loss, independently of the type of lesion. Variations within and between teeth found with the three methods demonstrate a large spatial inhomogeneity in calcium loss (= 25%) within a lesion of any of the two types.