A new transillumination system for the correct assessment of covered caries lesions and root canals in teeth

A new transillumination system would enable the dentist to measure correctly the location and extent of small subsurface caries lesions around the tooth and also of root canals which are difficult to achieve with any other present method. This patented method uses a narrow collimated light beam in-line with a electronic detector. By raster scanning the teeth they can be displayed on microcomputer monitor. In this paper we show sharp transillumination images of small subsurface lesions in extracted teeth. All of these lesions are either very difficult to detect or not detectable by X-ray film or by visual inspection.