Inductively Coupled Intraoral Flexible Coil for Increased Visibility of Dental Root Canals in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

OBJECTIVES Accurate visualization of dental root canals is vital for the correct diagnosis and subsequent treatment. This work assesses the improvement of a dedicated new coil for dental magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in comparison to conventional ones in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and visibility. MATERIALS AND METHODS A newly developed intraoral flexible coil was used to display dental roots with MRI, and it provides improved sensitivity with a loop design and size adjusted to a single tooth anatomy. Ex vivo and in vivo measurements were performed on a 3 T clinical MR system, and results were compared with conventional head and surface coil images. Additional comparison was performed with a modified fast spin echo sequence and a constructive interference in steady-state sequence. RESULTS Ex vivo, an SNR gain of 6.3 could be achieved with the intraoral flexible coil setup, and higher visibility down to 200 μm was possible, whereas the external loop coil is limited to 400 μm. In vivo measurements in a volunteer resulted in an SNR gain of up to 4.5 with an improved delineation of the root canals, especially for the branch tissue splitting of the mesial root canal into mesial-buccal and mesial-lingual. CONCLUSIONS In summary, we showed the feasibility of implementing a wireless coil approach with readily available dental practice materials for sealing and placement. Highly improved MRI scans can be acquired within clinically feasible scan times, and this might provide additional medical findings to supplement available x-ray images.