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The early detection of the carious lesion could lead to earlier intervention and improved inhibition of dental decay. To this end, we have investigated the response of the DIAGNOdent and Quantitative Light-Induced Fluorescence (QLF) techniques to detect early natural carious lesions in extracted teeth. Thirty-two teeth were chosen based on visual examination and cleaned, kept moist until use and then measured by two examiners. The most consistent and largest DIAGNOdent reading found on the smooth surface lesions was recorded. On the same surface a QLF image was obtained and analyzed using QLF Patient software 3.0.0.36 and quantitative software 2.00g (Inspektor Research Systems BV, The Netherlands). The teeth were then sectioned longitudinally through the measured area from one side of the lesion to the other. This produced multiple sections across the lesion area and polarized light microscopy was used to evaluate the sections and determine lesion depth. Lesion depth ranged from less than 100 to greater than 1000 µm while the DIAGNOdent readings ranged from 1 to 47. .Q measurements ranged from 0 to -343 while the .F values ranged from -6 to -39. Correlations between lesion depth and .F were between 0.5 and 0.6, while for the DIAGNOdent values they were 0.6-0.7. In conclusion the extracted natural lesions were clearly detected by both diagnostic techniques. Supported by NIH /NIDCR grant PO1 DE13540. |