I-Corps: Development of a Periodontal Ultrasound/Photoacoustic Imaging Device

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project may lead to an accurate and early detection of periodontal disease to reduce the pain and cost of dental care. Periodontal disease is common and often results in dental pain, tooth loss, reduced quality of life, and even systemic effects like cardiovascular disease. The current methods for periodontal evaluation use manual probing and visual inspection.

These methods are often inaccurate and have poor reproducibility, as well as being time consuming and sometimes painful. While X-ray imaging captures detailed information about intra-oral hard tissues, more detailed information about soft tissue is missed. There is an essential unmet need for non-invasive imaging to assess dental health.

This project will improve periodontal evaluation and diagnostics, treatment planning, and therapy monitoring. It may also make dental exams less painful for patients and more accurate for dentists.

This I-Corps project develops a novel non-invasive periodontal imaging device that provides key information for periodontitis diagnosis. Dual modality ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging can be used as a superior alternative to the current standard of care for periodontal evaluation. This approach combines the resolution of ultrasound with the contrast and spectral behavior of optics.

Photoacoustic imaging of the gingiva can detail the contours of the entire pocket with markedly less variability than conventional probing. This modality offers a perspective for early diagnosis of inflammation which is inaccessible by direct visual clinical assessment. In addition, ultrasound imaging can quantify gingival thickness which in turn, determines the final aesthetic treatment outcome.

Current clinical attachment loss is visually measured based on cementoenamel junction (CEJ) location and it is only visible if gingival margin has already recessed due to disease. In contrast, the ultrasound approach can image anatomical landmarks including CEJ and gingival margin to quantify attachment loss. The successful demonstration of the proposed project may lead to an accurate diagnosis of gum disease in the early stage of gingivitis that reduces the risk of advanced periodontitis and tooth loss.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.