Classification of maturation of bacterial dental deposits using differences in fluorescence intensity

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the red fluorescence characteristics of bacterial dental deposits assessed by quantitative light-induced fluorescence (QLF) technology and confirm whether the red fluorescence can distinguish and evaluate quantitatively accumulation of bacterial dental deposits. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study used QLF images captured at a dental clinic from January to December 2016. In each QLF image, a skilled examiner selected one region where the presence of deposits was suspected. Then, the regions were classified into three groups of not detectable deposits(ND), half detectable deposits (HD), and full detectable deposits (FD) by two examiners according to classification criteria. Only those images where the regions of bacterial dental deposits were classified identically by all examiners were used for analysis. The mean red fluorescence intensity (RFI) was defined as the mean value of R/G for all pixels in the regions. The RFI was compared between groups using Welch's ANOVA test, and the Spearman correlation was calculated to assess the association between RFI and accumulation of deposits. Results: In this study, 351 images among the collected images of 605 subjects were finally selected. The mean age of subjects was about 44 years. The R/G values of the ND, HD and FD were 0.73, 1.26 and 1.83 respectively. There were significant differences between all groups (p<0.001), and strong positive correlation was identified between the R/G value and the accumulation of deposits (r = 0.90, p<0.001). Conclusion: The intensity of red fluorescence as observed in the QLF images correlated well with the accumulation maturation of the deposits, which indicates that the QLF technology can be used to evaluate the status of oral hygiene.