Date of Completion

7-7-2015

Embargo Period

6-25-2016

Advisors

Alan Lurie, Sumit Yadav

Field of Study

Dental Science

Degree

Master of Dental Science

Open Access

Open Access

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging modality, which provides real-time near-histology resolution images. In dentistry, OCT has been used for early detection of carious lesions, malignant changes in the oral tissues and other indications. However, to the best of our knowledge there is no information regarding the ability of this imaging modality in differentiating between different types of tissues in the oral cavity. If OCT proves to be able to render information regarding the properties of tissues, it can be used to detect pathological changes at an early stage, which results in better treatment outcomes. In this study, we imaged five types of tissues, i.e., human enamel, human cortical bone, human trabecular bone, rat masseteric muscle and fatty tissue plus water and air using OCT (Axsun Inc. Billerica, MA). We then developed an algorithm to determine the intensity profile, pixel intensity values and histograms for each sample. The same tissues plus water and air were also imaged using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and gray scale values were measured for each tissue. The mean pixel intensity values and gray scale values for the OCT images and CBCT scans of each tissue were reported, respectively. A similar pattern was observed in the pixel intensity values and gray scale values in both imaging modalities. Therefore, within the limitations of this study, it was concluded that OCT can reliably differentiate between different tissues (hard and soft tissues) in vitro and the results are comparable to CBCT gray scale values

Major Advisor

Aditya Tadinada

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