title: High-Resolution Ultrasonic Imaging of Dento-Periodontal Tissues Using a Multi-Element Phased Array System.
abstract: Intraoral ultrasonography uses high-frequency mechanical waves to study dento-periodontium. Besides the advantages of portability and cost-effectiveness, ultrasound technique has no ionizing radiation. Previous studies employed a single transducer or an array of transducer elements, and focused on enamel thickness and distance measurement. This study used a phased array system with a 128-element array transducer to image dento-periodontal tissues. We studied two porcine lower incisors from a 6-month-old piglet using 20-MHz ultrasound. The high-resolution ultrasonographs clearly showed the cross-sectional morphological images of the hard and soft tissues. The investigation used an integration of waveform analysis, travel-time calculation, and wavefield simulation to reveal the nature of the ultrasound data, which makes the study novel. With the assistance of time-distance radio-frequency records, we robustly justified the enamel-dentin interface, dentin-pulp interface, and the cemento-enamel junction. The alveolar crest level, the location of cemento-enamel junction, and the thickness of alveolar crest were measured from the images and compared favorably with those from the cone beam computed tomography with less than 10% difference. This preliminary and fundamental study has reinforced the conclusions from previous studies, that ultrasonography has great potential to become a non-invasive diagnostic imaging tool for quantitative assessment of periodontal structures and better delivery of oral care.
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.|Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Kim-Cuong T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. lawrence.le@ualberta.ca.|Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. lawrence.le@ualberta.ca.
authors.forename: Lawrence H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Le
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Neelambar R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Kaipatur
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.|Department of Surgery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Edmond H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Paul W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Major
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D007180:Incisor / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008334:Mandible / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D010519:Periodontium / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013552:Swine; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Cemento-enamel junction; Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT); Dento-periodontium; High-frequency ultrasound; Phased array