Lancaster, P, Brettle, D, Carmichael, F et al. (1 more author) (2017) In-vitro Thermal Maps to Characterize Human Dental Enamel and Dentin. Frontiers in Physiology, 8. 461.
Abstract
The crown of a human tooth has an outer layer of highly-mineralized tissue called enamel, beneath which is dentin, a less-mineralized tissue which forms the bulk of the tooth-crown and root. The composition and structure of enamel and dentin are different, resulting in different thermal properties. This gives an opportunity to characterize enamel and dentin from their thermal properties and to visually present the findings as a thermal map. The thermal properties of demineralized enamel and dentin may also be sufficiently different from sound tissue to be seen on a thermal map, underpinning future thermal assessment of caries. The primary aim of this novel study was to produce a thermal map of a sound, human tooth-slice to visually characterize enamel and dentin. The secondary aim was to map a human tooth-slice with demineralized enamel and dentin to consider future diagnostic potential of thermal maps for caries-detection. Two human slices of teeth, one sound and one demineralized from a natural carious lesion, were cooled on ice, then transferred to a hotplate at 30°C where the rewarming-sequence was captured by an infra-red thermal camera. Calculation of thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity was undertaken, and two methods of data-processing used customized software to produce thermal maps from the thermal characteristic-time-to-relaxation and heat-exchange. The two types of thermal maps characterized enamel and dentin. In addition, sound and demineralized enamel and dentin were distinguishable within both maps. This supports thermal assessment of caries and requires further investigation on a whole tooth.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Lancaster, Brettle, Carmichael and Clerehugh. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
Keywords: | dental enamel; dental dentin; dental caries; demineralization; thermal imaging; thermal map |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Dentistry (Leeds) > Restorative Dentistry (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 28 Jul 2017 11:32 |
Last Modified: | 05 Oct 2017 16:24 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Frontiers Media |
Identification Number: | 10.3389/fphys.2017.00461 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:119591 |