A CONCEPTUAL MODELING OF ULTRASONIC TOMOGRAPHY SYSTEM TO DETECT EARLY CARIES LESIONS

Abstract

Dental diagnostic imaging plays a significant role in the field of dentistry. In the oral environment, continuous demineralization and remineralization of tooth structure is common. Early diagnosis and monitoring of carious lesions are essential, and enamel abnormalities require quantitative imaging techniques. Among the imaging modalities available are radiography, X-ray computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. However, to obtain imaging information on dental diagnostics, most of these systems rely on specific radiation and energy which might be harmful to health. To overcome the aforementioned problem, this research proposes a conceptual modeling of ultrasonic tomography system to detect enamel abnormalities using simulation from COMSOL software. Ultrasonic tomography can be obtained by the presence of acoustic waves transmitted from a source and the reflection of the waves at the investigated area. The transmission technique yielded 0.0041260 V for 7 MHz and 0.0003841 V for 25 MHz, but the reflection method yielded 0.000060 V for 7 MHz and 0.000211 V for 25 MHz.  The transmission approach produces the greatest difference in voltage when compared to the reflection method. This suggests that, in comparison to the reflection technique, the transmission method is significantly better at detecting changes on the tooth surface.