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The applicability of using different energy levels in CT imaging for differentiation or identification of dental restorative materials

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Abstract

Purpose

The goal of this study was to investigate whether different computed tomography (CT) energy levels could supply additional information for the differentiation of dental materials for forensic investigations.

Methods

Nine different commonly used restorative dental materials were investigated in this study. A total of 75 human third molars were filled with the restorative dental materials and then scanned using the forensic reference phantom in singlesource mode. The mean Hounsfield unit values and standard deviations (SDs) of each material were calculated at 120, 80 and 140 kVp.

Results

Most of the dental materials could be differentiated at 120 kVp. We found that greater X-ray density of a material resulted in higher SDs and that the material volume could influence the measurements.

Conclusion

Differentiation of dental materials in CT was possible in many cases using single-energy CT scans at 120 kVp. Because of the number of dental restorative materials available and scanner and scan parameter dependence, as well as the CT imaging artifacts, the identification (in contrast to differentiation) was problematic.

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Acknowledgments

We thank our dental laboratory technicians Pascale Vitek and Marcel Baumann for their support and for preparing the lab side materials. Additionally, we thank our radiographer Dominic Gascho for his help in performing and evaluating the scans.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic Medicine and Imaging, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190/52, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland

    Josef M. Kutschy, Garyfalia Ampanozi, Nicole Berger, Thomas D. Ruder, Michael J. Thali & Lars C. Ebert

  2. Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital of Zürich, Raemistrasse 100, 8091, Zurich, Switzerland

    Nicole Berger

  3. Institute of Diagnostic, Interventional, and Pediatric Radiology, University Hospital Bern, Freiburgstrasse, 3010, Bern, Switzerland

    Thomas D. Ruder

Authors
  1. Josef M. Kutschy
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  2. Garyfalia Ampanozi
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  3. Nicole Berger
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  4. Thomas D. Ruder
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  5. Michael J. Thali
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  6. Lars C. Ebert
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lars C. Ebert.

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Kutschy, J.M., Ampanozi, G., Berger, N. et al. The applicability of using different energy levels in CT imaging for differentiation or identification of dental restorative materials. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 10, 543–549 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-014-9595-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-014-9595-y

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