Optimal imaging windows of indocyanine green-assisted near-infrared dental imaging with rat model and its comparison to X-ray imaging

Zhongqiang Li, Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Thomas Hartzler, Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Alexandra Ramos, Department of Comparative Biomedical Science, School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Michelle L. Osborn, Department of Comparative Biomedical Science, School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Yanping Li, School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Shaomian Yao, Department of Comparative Biomedical Science, School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Jian Xu, Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Abstract

In this study, we used rat animal model to compare the efficiency of indocyanine green (ICG)-assisted dental near-infrared fluorescence imaging with X-ray imaging, and we optimized the imaging window for both unerupted and erupted molars. The results show that the morphology of the dental structures was observed clearly from ICG-assisted dental images (especially through the endoscope). A better image contrast was easily acquired at the short imaging windows (<10 >minutes) for unerupted and erupted molars. For unerupted molars, there is another optimized imaging window (48-96 hours) with a prominent glow-in-the-dark effect: only the molars remain bright. This study also revealed that the laser ablation of dental follicles can disrupt the molar development, and our method is able to efficiently detect laser-treated molars and acquire the precise morphology. Thus, ICG-assisted dental imaging has the potential to be a safer and more efficient imaging modality for the real-time diagnosis of dental diseases.

This paper has been withdrawn.