A Comprehensive Review of Quantitative Techniques Used for Analysis Demineralisation and Remineralisation of Enamel White Spot Lesion

Abstract

In the last decades, there has been an increasing focus on identifying and treating enamel white-spot lesions before cavitation. This will allow for noninvasive treatment approaches to be applied. Therefore, there is a need for an accurate technique to analyse early mineral changes in the lesions. This comprehensive review provides an overview of the quantitative techniques currently used to analyse enamel white spot lesion demineralisation and remineralisation. This review is based on multiple databases searches (PubMed - Ovid - Web of Science - Scopus) of the quantitative techniques currently within the peerreviewed literature. Specific terms were used to search, such as “quantitative – enamel – demineralisation – remineralisation”. Also, manual searches by identified techniques such as “TMR,” “QLF,” “EDS,” were used to a more extensive review of the available literature. Numerous quantitative techniques that capable of analysing demineralisation and remineralisation have been published., TMR is the gold standard of these for analysing the mineral change in enamel lesions and is used as the benchmark by which other techniques are validated. Each technique has a specific method of evaluation and parameters. The advantages and disadvantages of each technique are provided in this review. Some techniques can be used only in in vitro and in situ studies, while others can be used in in vivo studies. Hence, the choice of the technique depends on the research methodology and model being used. Also, this can be limited by the availability of the equipment and whether the data collected will answer the research question.