5. Conclusions
In summary, this study has shown that the efficiency of dehydration can be greatly improved by modifying the air-nozzle characteristics of an existing handpiece used for time-resolved SWIR imaging and that the handpiece can perform nearly as well as a benchtop system. Complete dehydration was achieved for the ten active occlusal lesions in the study in less than 30 seconds indicating that the handpiece is practical for clinical use. Delay, %Ifin, and rate were extracted from the acquired intensity vs time curves. Each of these parameters varied markedly between active and arrested lesions and was suitable for the assessment of lesion activity. We plan to further assess the clinical performance of the newly designed handpiece in future clinical studies.