Development of Ultrasonic Apparatus for Dental Diagnosis

DESCRIPTION: Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus has been proposed (Phases 1 and 2)
for Dental applications in determining tooth pathologies such as
demineralization, caries, fractures, abscesses, and tooth wear. The equipment
adopts piezoelectric and optic hybrid transduction system for interrogation on
teeth. Ultrasonic responses of the tooth structure will then be analyzed by a
pattern recognition expert system (artificial intelligence) to determine the
diagnosis of the tooth inspected. The proposed research will eventually help to
reduce the use of harmful X-ray radiation in Dental clinic and also contribute
to artificial intelligence based diagnosis. In the Phase 1 research, tooth
specimens will be collected from local Dental clinics; demonstration
instrumentation will be constructed; ultrasonic testing will be conducted on
the tooth specimens in vitro; and finally, the test data will be analyzed to
show the potential for Dental pathology identification. The feasibility of the
proposed research concept will be demonstrated, if: 1) meaningful ultrasonic
tests can be conducted using the simple piezo-/opto-ultrasonic system on the
tooth specimens collected; 2) various Dental pathologies in the tooth specimens
may be characterized by using wave pattern of the ultrasonic responses; and 3)
by identifying particular features of an ultrasonic wave pattern, the actual
tooth pathology may be recognized.
PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: NOT AVAILABLE