Early Discovery, Assessment, and Diagnosis
By By Scott D. Benjamin, DDS
Advanced diagnostic technologies are the foundation of oral health. A field-of-view screening technology’s initial role is to assess a wide region to discover abnormalities or irregularities. Some of these modalities also have the ability to provide site-specific information to the clinician once an area has been detected. An example of this type of device is a fluorescence mucosal screening technology, such as the VELscope Vx (LED Dental, Inc, www.velscope.com) and DentLight DOE (DentLight, Inc, www.dentlight.com). These instruments are initially used to perform a cursory fluorescence screening after the clinician’s visual and tactile examination. This screening is performed to look for any abnormal fluorescence patterns or responses, such as an unexpected loss of fluorescence.