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.