Method: Ten deciduous molars were bisected through open carious cavities. The two halves of each tooth were scanned using a high definition XMT scanner at 30 microns resolution. Following the initial scan, dentinal caries were removed from each pair of the same tooth samples using an excavator and CarisolvTM. Each tooth sample was then re-scanned. The three-dimensional XMT data sets were then cropped to the volume of the carious lesion. Linear Attenuation Coefficients (LAC), values related to the mineral concentration, were associated with each voxel (volume element). Histograms of the LAC were obtained for the volume of the caries lesions before and after removal. A ‘blind method' analysis was used whereby the assessor did not know which half of the lesions were removed by hand excavation/CarisolvTM for each of the samples. Qualitative analysis of the histograms was performed to see whether there is a difference between the two techniques.
Results: Of the ten tooth samples, eight were judged to have better caries removal on the half treated with CarisolvTM. Assessment was based on removal of the lesion body and retention of sound and partially demineralised (affected) dentine.
Conclusion: Caries removal by hand excavation and CarisolvTM are shown to have distinctive features in the LAC histograms. These features were identified qualitatively. This preliminary study suggests that caries removal with CarisolvTM is more effective, although further quantitative analysis will need to be carried out.