Know new cavities! Light technology detects potential for tooth decay.

AuthorHromadka, Erik
PositionAROUND INDIANA

WHEN GEORGE STOOKEY retired from the Indiana University School of Dentistry in 2001, he certainly didn't set out to become an entrepreneur. But he had an idea that might make an interesting hobby--using light waves to identify teeth that would soon develop cavities.

OK, it might be difficult to find anyone other than a retired professor or dentist who would call that a hobby However, as a new business venture, the concept seems to be generating some excitement.

Stookey, who spent 37 years in teaching, research and administrative positions at the dental school, was intrigued by technology that was being in used in Europe to test teeth with lasers. The concept was fairly simple: long before a tooth developed a cavity, early signs of decay could be identified by measuring how light reflected from its surface.

However, Stookey thought there was an opportunity to improve the technology by making the equipment less bulky and adding features such as voice-activation, wireless data transfer and software analysis of the results.

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In 2002, he acquired a small company called Therametric Technologies and relocated to the IU Emerging Technologies Center near the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus. Stookey, who has published hundreds of scientific articles on the use of fluoride and has numerous patents for the detection of cavities, used his extensive knowledge of dental research to secure grant funding from the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research and Indiana's 21st Century Research and Technology Fund.

That allowed him to concentrate on his new "hobby" and develop prototypes of hand-held devices that use LED lights to measure reflection from the surface of individual teeth. "What we've done is select the wavelength that gives you the maximum amount of fluorescence," he explains.

The latest version of the device is also voice-activated so that dentists or their assistants can perform oral exams and have the results wirelessly fed back into computers that record and analyze each reading. A small stream of air can also be directed onto each tooth to dry its surface and then take a second measurement that identifies the earliest signs that mineral loss has begun.

"It's a...

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