UTILITY OF OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY- A NOVEL IMAGING TOOL IN PERIODONTICS

Abstract

Biomedical engineering via technology has revolutionised the field of medicine to such great
heights that the quality of health care has been enhanced. Imaging technologies have been a
back bone in the field of medicine for diagnostic purposes and for evaluating the treatment
outcomes. Multitude of diagnostic aids at hand serve the purpose, but are mostly complicated
and are not patient friendly with more limitations. Hence, there is always an incessant quest
for versatile advanced technologies to meet the need. In recent years, optical coherence
technology (OCT) has been gaining its importance in the field of medicine and research, and
has found its utility in the field of dentistry as well. It has been proven to be effective in
evaluating enamel cracks, incipient caries, interproximal caries, bonding strengths of the
materials, in prosthetic evaluation, in diagnosing the abrasive effects of tooth pastes and
many more. Recently, in the field of periodontics it has been proven to be effective in
evaluating the gingival conditions, evaluation of the periodontal pockets and evaluation of the
peri implant conditions beforehand, making the treatment less complicated much before there
is substantial damage to the tooth structures. OCT is expected to be a novel prospective next
generation imaging diagnostic instrument and extensive research is being carried out to
improvise its clinical use in dental medicine. This review article gives you an insight on the
basics of OCT, principles and on the various studies demonstrating the utility of OCT in the
field of periodontics.