Evaluation of resin infiltration using quantitative light-induced fluorescence technology

Objectives To determine whether quantitative light-induced fluorescence (QLF) technology can be used to classify the colour of teeth specimens before and after resin infiltration (RI) treatment, and calculate the correlation between the ΔF value and colour difference (ΔE) in fluorescence images of the specimens obtained using a QLF–digital (QLF-D) device. Methods Sixty sound bovine permanent teeth specimens were immersed in demineralized solution. Two exposed windows were formed in each specimen, and RI treatment was applied to one of them. The ΔE values were obtained for the differences between a sound tooth surface (SS), an early dental caries surface (ECS) and an ECS treated with RI (RS) in white-light and fluorescence images obtained using QLF-D, respectively. The ΔF value was obtained from fluorescence images using dedicated software for QLF-D. The mean differences between the ΔE values obtained from the white-light and fluorescence images were analyzed by paired t -test. Pearson correlation analysis and Bland-Altman plots were applied to the differences between the ΔF value for ECS (ΔF SS-ECS ) and the ΔE value between SS and ECS (ΔE SS-ECS ), and between the ΔF value for RS (ΔF SS-RS ) and the ΔE value between SS and RS (ΔE SS-RS ) in fluorescence images. Results The ΔE values obtained from fluorescence images were three times higher than the ΔE values obtained from white-light images (p SS-ECS and ΔF SS-ECS (r = −0.492, p SS-RS and ΔF SS-RS (r = −0.661, p Conclusion QLF technology can be used to confirm the presence of RI in teeth.