Optical method for gingivitis detection

Abstract

A tissue inflammation detection system (600) including: a light emitter (602) configured to emit light towards tissue (604); at least one light detector (606) configured to detect diffuse reflective light from the tissue; and a controller (613) including a tissue inflammation detection unit (614) configured to analyze the detected diffuse reflective light in its spectral components. The tissue inflammation detection unit is configured to: determine a tissue contribution from a first wavelength region of a diffuse reflective spectroscopy signal where the diffuse reflective spectroscopy signal is dominated by tissue; extrapolate the tissue contribution to a second wavelength region where the diffuse reflective spectroscopy signal includes at least one detectable hemoglobin absorption feature; subtract the extrapolated tissue contribution from the diffuse reflectance signal; and determine the degree of tissue inflammation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.