Apparatus and method for tooth pulp vitality detection
AssigneeUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore
InventorsCha-Min Tang, Joseph Schmitt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus provided for detecting tooth pulp vitality includes a handle, a pivot and a caliper. A pair of fiber optic lines pass through an interior of the handle, the pivot and the caliper. One of the fiber optic lines is a source line with a connector at an end of the source line and another of the fiber optic lines is a detector line with a connector at an end of the detector line. The source line is single mode in the handle and the detector line is multi mode. A system is also provided for detecting tooth pulp vitality that includes the apparatus. Additionally, a method is provided for detecting tooth pulp vitality that employs the apparatus.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a handle;
- a pivot;
- a caliper;
- and
- a pair of fiber optic lines passing through an interior of the handle, the pivot and the caliper;
- wherein one of the fiber optic lines is a source line with a connector at an end of the source line and wherein the source line is single mode in the handle;
- wherein another of the fiber optic lines is a detector line with a connector at an end of the detector line and wherein the detector line is multi mode;
- wherein the caliper includes a tip configured to engage opposite sides of a sample;
- wherein the source line is configured to receive light from an optical source having a coherence length;
- and
- wherein the tip is configured such that a difference between a first optical path along the source line and the detector line through a target volume of the sample and a second optical path along the source line and the detector line through a non-target volume of the sample exceeds the coherence length of the light to optically suppress signals from the non-target volume at the detector line such that the signals from the non-target volume do not interfere at the detector line and such that motion within the target volume is measured while motion within the non-target volume is suppressed.
An apparatus comprising:
- a probe;
- a pair of fiber optic lines passing through an interior of the probe;
- wherein one of the fiber optic lines is a source line with a connector at an end of the source line;
- wherein another of the fiber optic lines is a detector line with a connector at an end of the detector line;
- wherein the probe includes a tip configured to engage opposite sides of a sample;
- wherein the source line is configured to receive light from an optical source having a coherence length;
- and
- wherein the tip is configured such that a difference between a first optical path along the source line and the detector line through a target volume of the sample and a second optical path along the source line and the detector line through a non-target volume of the sample exceeds the coherence length of the light to optically suppress signals from the non-target volume at the detector line such that the signals from the non-target volume do not interfere at the detector line and such that motion within the target volume is measured while motion within the non-target volume is suppressed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.