Secondary caries is one of the main types of dental disease that is usually found in the oral cavity. This disease is a condition of damage to the internal and external structures of the teeth where secondary caries occurs in the tooth restoration. Based on data on the prevalence of dental caries, it is estimated that around 60% to 80% of Indonesian population experiences dental caries, and it is ranked sixth as a dental and oral disease in Indonesia. The province with the highest percentage of caries is Central Sulawesi at 60.4%. The highest rate occurred in children aged 5 to 9 years, reaching 92.6%. Caries itself is divided into 2, namely primary caries which occurs in teeth and secondary caries which occurs in dental restorations.
Based on these problems, one of Universitas Brawijaya research teams consisted of 5 people involving Inggil Ma’rifat Djati (Electrical Engineering, FT), Farouq Akbar Aldy (Electrical Engineering, FT), Siti Nurhaliza (Electrical Engineering, FT), Zhafira Alya Afanin (Dentist Education, FKG) and Childnandira Ayu Nur Ittazza (Dentist Education, FKG) supervised by Lecturer Eka Maulana, S.T., M.T., M.Eng. developed an innovative detection tool using infrared light to avoid the risk of exposure to radiation waves and 3-dimensional reconstruction to facilitate observation for doctors, medical personnel and indicated patients.
“Until now, caries is the most common disease found in the oral cavity of children and even adults. But people often don’t pay attention to this,” said Inggil. Inggil stated that secondary caries is caused by tooth restorations leaking during procedures or being eroded due to daily activities such as eating or drinking.
“In this research, we assembled a micro camera that is capable of capturing infrared images with an infrared laser to transilluminate teeth, so that teeth that are shot with infrared light can clearly observe the surface structure and parts of the teeth,” said Farouq, one of the researchers.
Liza explained, “TransAID is also equipped with a 3-dimensional reconstruction mode by connecting the camera with an LED light. Later, the LED light will illuminate the part of the tooth that will be captured by the camera and then reconstruct it using open source software from Meshroom.”
In the process of testing the tool, the teeth are exposed to infrared light and then observed using a camera to provide a clear image of the tooth structure so that whether there is a leak or not can be seen with a black and white appearance. Then the process continues to the 3-dimensional imaging stage. Teeth which images have been captured from all sides are reconstructed using software and observed according to the suspected location of secondary caries. On the other hand, trial subjects will not experience serious side effects such as the appearance of tumors as is the risk of using radiography.
“Even though this tool can work properly, it is felt that further development and refinement is still needed so that this tool can be used and utilized by the entire community. We plan to continue evaluating tools such as size problems that we can reduce further or in other areas, of course this is not an easy and short thing. We will continue this development not only on a lab scale or in the PKM program, the target is until this tool reaches the 100% optimal stage,” added Zhafira, a researcher from FKG.
Azza stated, “This research is currently in the development process and it is hoped that it can become the main alternative that can be utilized by the whole community without side effects.”
“The existing development process is one step so that this research achieves its goals. Of course, it is hoped that this tool will be further optimized and can be used by the Indonesian, because this tool can be an alternative for secondary detection. The equipment marketed in several hospitals is still relatively small, quite low on costs, and certainly without the risk of side effects,” she explained.
By carrying out this research, it is hoped that it will be able to facilitate the treatment of patients suffering from or indicated by secondary caries throughout Indonesia and become a real form of contribution from Universitas Brawijaya students in taking part in improving the health of all Indonesian within the scope of this research, namely the oral and dental health of the community.
This research is supported by funds from the Ministry of Education and Culture and Universitas Brawijaya through the 2024 Student Creativity Program in the field of Creative Initiation.
The TransAID secondary caries detection tool is not only a technological breakthrough in the world of dentistry, but also has the potential to become the standard for safer and more accurate dental treatment in the future. (pkmkc/wdd/UB PR/ Trans. Iir).
