Two of the diagnostic technologies that I've been excited about for years are transillumination and caries fluorescence. Both of these allow the doctor to find decay at its earliest stages. The great thing about finding things when they're tiny is that is gives the doctor a lot of options.
We all know that some patients suffer problems that quickly break down, while others progress slowly. Ask any doctor and they will tell you that some patients seem to suffer decay much more easily than others. Many times these patients can have meticulous home and still see frequent problems. The flip side is that some patients don't do nearly as much home care and seem to rarely if ever suffer problems... and if they do, they progress slowly.
For patients who suffer from frequent and fast breakdown, early intervention is usually needed. That means finding problems when they are small allows the doctor to remove small amounts of tooth structure and leave more, healthy structure in place.
Finding problems when they are small can also allow a doctor to try remineralization therapy to perhaps reverse tiny lesions in patients who break down slowly. This can potentially eliminate the need to perform a restoration at all.
Usually by the time an area of caries in the interproximal area is detectable on a bitewing, the lesion is hard to reverse and difficult to monitor adequately. This is when transillumination is a great thing to have. Often areas in the interproximal area can be seen with transillumination before they are visible on a bitewing.
It's the same with with areas on the occlusal or smooth surfaces where an explorer is normally used. Frequently when a lesion is detectable with an explorer, it has cavitated and undermined enough enamel that a restoration is needed.
These clinical problems can be handled with the MicroLux DW from AdDent. The smart people at AdDent created the MicroLux unit several years ago. However, they've recently upgraded the device with the new name of MicroLux DW and the DW stands for dual wavelength. It has both a visible white light mode for transillumination as well as a violet (405nm) light that performs biofluorescence. This allows the device to perform two important functions to increase diagnostic accuracy and to find areas of concern when they are tiny.
The device comes with a small autoclavable tip that is attached. The tip is 3mm in diameter and allows the doctor to get it wherever needed in the mouth. The tip allows for easy illumination of interproximal lesions with minimal light pollution to the doctors eyes, since the small tip directs the light easily below the height of contour of the area being examined.
- Visualizing teeth for cracks, fractures, calculus, and caries
- Visualize existing composites for marginal defects and microleakage
- Checking inlays and onlays for micro-cracks or crazes before cementation
- Evaluation of enamel discoloration, including white spot lesions
- Visualization of the root canal and root fractures
- Visualize Biofilm
- Visualize caries Bacteria
- Evaluation of White Spot Lesions and Demineralization
- Visualize Plaque for perio and implant maintenance
- Differentiate between tooth fluorescent vs non-fluorescent restorative materials