Evaluation of tooth physiological characteristics based on PS-OCT

Accurate and early evaluation of dental physiological characteristics is essential for effective disease detection and management. Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) is a noninvasive high-resolution imaging technique that can obtain tooth structure and physiological features through intensity, retardation and degree of polarization uniformity (DOPU) images. In this study, we use the information provided by the PS-OCT system, especially the retardation information, to assess the physiological characteristics of teeth. In addition, we introduce a novel parameter — the rate of change of the retardation value ([Formula: see text] — to evaluate the magnitude of birefringence of enamel, which serves as an indicator of enamel health and mineralization. The results demonstrate that PS-OCT not only provides structural detail comparable to microcomputed tomography (microCT), but also yields additional physiological characteristics insights through polarization-based contrast. These findings highlight the strong potential of PS-OCT for early diagnosis, functional evaluation and personalized monitoring in dental care.