School of Electronics and director of BioPhotronics Laboratory, Kyungpook National University, Republic of Korea

Jeehyun Kim is currently professor in the School of Electronics and director of BioPhotronics Laboratory at Kyungpook National University, Republic of Korea. He received Ph.D. study at University of Texas at Austin and served as Postdoctoral Researcher in Beckman Laser Institute at University of California. He has published over 110 research papers in SCI journals, and his research mainly focuses on Biomedical Imaging and Sensing- Optical Coherence Tomography, Nueroscience- Multiphoton Microscopy, Optostimulation, Photo- Acoustic Imaging, and Sensors- Brillouin OTDR, FBG interrogator.

Speech Title: Optical Coherence Tomography: A New Reliable Assistant To Dental And Sub-branch Practitioners

Abstract: The evidence of dentistry in ancient practice can be dated back to Indus valley civilization. Centuries of modernization and new implementation methods have substantially improved its treatment efficacy. When it comes to medical practice, early and accurate diagnosis of a medical condition becomes a key factor for an effective and rapid treatment protocol. When it comes to dentistry and other branches of oral health treatments, conventional and newly implemented diagnostic techniques like visual inspection, cephalometric radiographs, cone-beam computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging, has been widely relied on by medical practitioners to determine a treatment plan. These techniques though offer a high-level depth imaging capability, yet the imaging resolution is limited to few hundred micrometers to few millimeters. This, in turn, makes it difficult to accurately diagnose the disease progression. Furthermore, most of these techniques subject the patients to low-level ionizing radiation. A non-destructive, non-ionizing, and real-time imaging technique which can offer high-resolution micrometer-scale resolved cross-sectional and volumetric images like optical coherence tomography (OCT) can aid dental practitioners to accurately diagnose the disease progression and to accordingly make treatment planning. Since its first introduction in 1991, OCT has seen substantial growth in medical research and in clinical implementations like in ophthalmology, dermatology, angiographic and in endoscopy fields. In recent years, research groups from around the globe are exploring the futuristic capabilities of using OCT in dentistry and its sub-branches. In this topic we will be seeing the possible applications of using OCT for dental and orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning.

Keywords: Biomedical Imaging, Dentistry, Optical Coherence Tomography, Orthodontics.