Polarized light propagation through sound and carious enamel at 1310-nm

A thorough understanding of how polarized near-IR light propagates through sound and carious dental hard tissues is important for the development of dental optical imaging systems. New optical imaging tools for the detection and assessment of dental caries (dental decay) such as near-IR imaging and optical coherence tomography can exploit the enhanced contrast provided by polarization sensitivity. Stokes polarimetry was used to monitor the state of polarization (SOP) and degree of polarization (DOP) of incident linearly and circularly polarized light as it propagates through extracted human whole teeth, thin tooth sections and single apatite crystals. These measurements at 1310-nm suggest that the DOP is maintained through sound tooth enamel and transparent dentin and that circularly polarized light is typically depolarized more rapidly than linearly light. Polarized light is rapidly depolarized by demineralized enamel and sound and demineralized dentin. The rapid depolarization of polarized light by dental caries in the near-IR provides high contrast for caries imaging and detection.