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IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
Volume 48 Number 11, November 2000

Table of Contents for this issue

Complete paper in PDF format

Study on Dental Diagnosis and Treatment Using Millimeter Waves

Yoshio Nikawa, Member, IEEE Naoya Hoshi, Keiji Kawai and Shigeyuki Ebisu

Page 1783.

Abstract:

In order to diagnose dental caries noninvasively, transmission coefficient of the dental caries is measured and compared to that of a sound tooth. It has been revealed that dental caries are significantly lossy than a sound tooth in millimeter waves. The characteristic can be utilized in the new caries diagnosis. This paper also presents microwave and millimeter-wave heating for the lossy dental caries that can be used as a sterilization treatment. Temperature-distribution heated by microwave power has revealed that dental caries are easily heated. Furthermore, the results of the calculated specific absorption rate distribution using the finite-difference time-domain method indicate the possibility of caries treatment by millimeter-wave heating. It is concluded that millimeter waves can be used for dental medical diagnosis and treatment.

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