ABSTRACT
Dental materials are a particular class of biomaterials applied for prevention and treatment in the oral cavity, particularly in its most critical structure: the tooth, which is the main element responsible for speaking, biting, chewing and swallowing, besides being part of facial aesthetics. Teeth are composed of enamel and dentin, having as supportive structures the alveolar bone and gingiva, which are attached to the teeth through the cementum and periodontal ligament. Undesirable – although sometimes avoidable – diseases such as caries, tooth wear, trauma and mechanical defects can alter tooth conditions. Correcting these defects remains a challenge for scientists and dentists, and the use of appropriate dental materials is of paramount importance. Materials science, including biomaterials, has evolved quite a lot in the last decades, and there is a need for proper evaluation of them, including dental materials, which exploits a myriad of methods. In this chapter, we exploit the OCT as one of the most important non-invasive optical imaging methods to evaluate its performance, both in vitro – in the lab environment – and in vivo, when placed in the patient’s mouth.
