KR20160015460A - System and method for measuring tooth enamel volume - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided are a system and a method for measuring volume of tooth enamel. The system for measuring volume of tooth enamel according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a light coherence tomography device which radiates light to teeth for B-scan in the longitudinal direction of the teeth and C-scan in the width direction, and generates a plurality of B-scan tomography images about the teeth based on reflected light; a volume measuring unit which calculates an area from each B-scan tomography image by extracting an enamel area of the teeth from each generated B-scan tomography image, and measures volume of the enamel by summing the calculated area of the B-scan tomography images.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for measuring volume enamel volume of a tooth enamel,

More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for measuring the volume of a tooth enamel using real-time three-dimensional optical coherence tomography and a method therefor.

In general, teeth have a high rate of toxic infections and can not be regenerated. If a tooth cavity is left untreated, inflammation may spread to the root or gums, which may lead to serious diseases. Currently, dental diagnostic devices that can identify cavities are very difficult to determine the minute damage status of teeth because of their low resolution. In addition, since the procedure was not confirmed, it was impossible to check the treatment status of the teeth in real time.

On the other hand, the dental diagnosis method which can confirm the cavity is performed only by the X-ray examination and the clinical doctor's opinion. These methods have a high risk of radiation exposure in frequent exposure to X-rays and can not confirm the fine structure of the teeth due to the low resolution of the photographed images. After the initial diagnosis, There was difficulty.

In addition, since these methods can not be quantified as quantitative data of tooth enamel, many people postpone the treatment because they do not feel pain or inconvenience in the teeth despite the need for cavity treatment. For this reason, most of the patients who visit the dentist visit the dentist in a state in which the cavities are advanced.

In addition, in conventional diagnostic instruments, it is difficult to identify cavities at early stages by a method such as visual inspection, laser fluorescence method, or DIAGNOIDENT, which is a diagnostic method related to tooth decay. These devices have difficulties in accurately determining the presence or absence of cavities because the cavities can not be expressed numerically.

KR 2010-0111226 A

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an enamel volume measuring system and method for quantitatively measuring volume of enamel of a tooth using a three-dimensional optical tomography apparatus I want to.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for performing a B-scan in a longitudinal direction of a tooth and a C-scan in a width direction, irradiating the tooth with light, An optical coherence tomography apparatus for generating a plurality of B-scan tomographic images, and an enamel region of the tooth from each of the generated B-scan tomographic images to calculate an area in each of the B-scan tomographic images And calculating a volume of the enamel by summing the calculated areas of the plurality of B-scan tomographic images.

In one embodiment, the volume measuring unit may include an image input unit into which the plurality of B-scan tomographic images of the teeth are input, a boundary extractor that extracts enamel boundaries from the inputted B-scan tomographic images, An area calculator for calculating an area of the extracted enamel area in each B-scan tomographic image, and a volume calculator for calculating the volume of the enamel by summing the area calculated from each B-scan tomographic image .

In one embodiment, the boundary extractor may extract the boundary using a Median filter.

In one embodiment, the area calculator may calculate the area of the enamel by counting the number of pixels in the area in the B-scan tomographic image.

In one embodiment, the volume measuring unit may further include a storage unit in which the plurality of B-scan tomographic images are stored, and a volume of the measured enamel is stored.

In one embodiment, the optical coherence tomography apparatus includes a light source for generating light, an optical coupler for dividing the light generated from the light source, a phase detector for receiving and dividing the light split from the optical coupler, A phase retardation unit for transmitting the first reflected light to the optical coupler, a beam splitting unit for splitting the light from the optical coupler into B-rays in the longitudinal direction of the teeth, and irradiating the teeth with C- A scanning probe for transmitting the first reflected light and the second reflected light incident on the optical coupler to an electrical signal to transmit a plurality of B-scan tomographic images of the tooth to the optical coupler, And an optical tomographic imaging unit for generating a tomographic image.

In one embodiment, the volume measuring unit may further include a scanning driver for driving the scanning probe in the B-scan direction or the C-scan direction.

In one embodiment, the scanning driver may cause the scanning probe to perform the C-scan at intervals less than one pixel width of the B-scan tomographic image.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical coherence tomography apparatus comprising: an optical coherence tomography apparatus for performing B-scan in a longitudinal direction of a tooth and C-scan in a width direction; Generating a plurality of B-scan tomographic images for the teeth, and extracting enamel areas of the teeth from each of the generated B-scan tomographic images to calculate areas in the respective B-scan tomographic images, Measuring a volume of the enamel by summing the calculated areas of the plurality of B-scan tomographic images; and measuring a volume of the enamel.

In one embodiment, the measuring comprises inputting the plurality of B-scan tomographic images for the tooth, selecting one B-scan tomographic image of the input image, selecting the selected B- Calculating an area of the extracted enamel area in the selected B-scan tomographic image, determining whether the operation has been completed for all of the plurality of B-scan tomographic images, And calculating the volume of the enamel by summing the area calculated from each B-scan tomographic image when it is determined that the calculation is completed for all of the plurality of B-scan tomographic images.

In one embodiment, in the determining, if it is determined that the operation has not been completed for all of the plurality of B-scan tomographic images, the next B-scan tomographic image is selected and extracted, Can be repeatedly performed.

In one embodiment, the extracting may extract the boundary using a median filter.

In one embodiment, calculating the area may calculate the area of the enamel by counting the number of pixels in the area in the B-scan tomographic image.

In one embodiment, the generating step may perform the C-scan at intervals less than one pixel width of the B-scan tomographic image.

In one embodiment, the generating includes generating light, splitting the generated light, receiving the split light, phase-scanning and reflecting the split light, delivering the first reflected light, Irradiating the tooth with B-scan in the longitudinal direction of the tooth and C-scan in the width direction to transmit the second reflected light from the tooth, and transferring the first reflected light and the second reflected light, And converting the reflected light into an electrical signal to produce a plurality of B-scan tomographic images for the tooth.

The volume enamel volume measuring system and method according to an embodiment of the present invention can quantify the state of tooth cavity by quantitatively measuring the volume of tooth enamel using a real-time three-dimensional optical tomography apparatus, By accurately measuring the residual amount, the risk of dental caries can be detected early and thus the reliability of the dental care can be secured.

In addition, one embodiment of the present invention can quickly and accurately diagnose the volume of enamel in real time, alleviate the probability of misdiagnosis of the cavity, reduce the economic burden on the patients by enabling appropriate prescription immediately, It is possible to provide a more stable medical environment.

Further, according to one embodiment of the present invention, by using a three-dimensional optical coherence tomography apparatus for diagnosing tooth decay, it is possible to provide microscale optical tomographic images and residual volume of enamel that could not be provided previously, Can be made in small size.

1 is a schematic block diagram of a volume enamel volume measuring system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram showing the detailed configuration of the volume measuring unit of FIG.
3 is a photograph of an actual tooth cavity.
Fig. 4 is an optical tomographic image of the upper part of the tooth and the enamel part.
5 is a view for explaining the principle of measurement of a volume enamel volume measuring system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a photograph for explaining the principle of measurement of a volume enamel volume measuring system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a graph illustrating the principle of measurement of a volume enamel volume measuring system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.
8 is a flowchart illustrating a method of measuring the volume of enamel of a tooth according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. The present invention may be embodied in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and the same or similar components are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the specification.

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of a volume enamel volume measuring system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a volume measuring unit of FIG. Hereinafter, a volume measuring system for enamel enamel according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, a volume enamel volume measurement system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an optical coherence tomography apparatus 100 and a volume measurement unit 200.

The optical coherence tomography apparatus 100 irradiates the tooth 300 with light to perform B-scan in the longitudinal direction of the tooth 300 and C-scan in the width direction, And includes a light source 110, an optocoupler 120, a phase delay unit 130, a scanning probe 140, and a tomographic imaging unit 150. The B-

The light source 110 can generate light having a wide optical bandwidth and a short interference length, such as light having an interference length of about several micrometers. For example, the light source has a near-infrared wavelength band (800 nm to 1550 nm) with a center wavelength of 840 nm, a full width half maximum (FWHM) of 50 nm and a maximum output power of 5.3 mW have.

The optical coupler 120 may receive the light generated from the light source 110, divide the received light, and transmit the split light to the phase delay unit 130 and the scanning probe 140 through the optical fiber. The optical coupler 120 may receive the first reflected light from the phase delay unit 130 and the second reflected light from the scanning probe 140 and transmit the received second reflected light to the optical tomography unit 150.

The phase delay unit 130 receives the divided light from the optical coupler 120 and performs phase scanning and reflection so as to transmit the first reflected light to the optical coupler 120. The phase delay unit 130 includes a collimator 132, And a reference mirror 136, as shown in FIG.

More specifically, the collimator 132 receives the light emitted from the optical coupler 120, converts the light into parallel light, and outputs the parallel light to the focusing lens 134. The focusing lens 134 can adjust the focus distance of the parallel light so that the parallel light converted through the collimator 132 converges into one focus. The reference mirror 136 can change the optical path by receiving the light collected in one focus through the focusing lens 134 and then reflecting the generated first reflected light to the focusing lens 134 again.

The scanning probe 140 irradiates the teeth 300 to be diagnosed so as to perform B-scan in the longitudinal direction of the teeth 300 and C-scan in the width direction by dividing the incident light from the optical coupler 120, 300 to the optical coupler 120 and may include a collimator 142, a scanning mirror 144, and a scan lens 146.

More specifically, the collimator 142 is divided through the optical coupler 120 and receives incident light to convert the light into parallel light. The scanning mirror 144 receives the collimated light from the collimator 142 and changes the optical path of the balanced light. Then, the scanning mirror 144 irradiates light to the teeth 300 to be diagnosed, and the second reflected light reflected from the tooth 300 is scanned The optical path of the second reflected light can be changed and transmitted to the optical coupler 120. [ The scan lens 146 can adjust the focus of the light so that the light irradiated through the scanning mirror 144 is irradiated to the tooth 300 with one focus.

The scanning probe 140 is scanned with respect to the X axis or the Y axis by the scanning driver 220 as described below so that the scanning probe 140 can be B-scanned or C-scanned by one focus irradiated on the tooth 300, And can be driven in the longitudinal direction or the width direction of the tooth 300.

The tomographic imaging unit 150 may convert a first reflected light and a second reflected light incident from the optical coupler 120 into an electrical signal to generate a plurality of B-scan tomographic images of the tooth 300 A collimator 152, a diffraction grating 154, a focusing lens 156, and a line scan camera 158.

More specifically, the collimator 152 receives the first reflected light and the second reflected light reflected from the phase delay unit 130 and the scanning probe 140 through the optical coupler 120 and converts the reflected light into the parallel light have. The diffraction grating 154 can receive the converted balanced light through the collimator 152 and diffract it by wavelength. The focusing lens 156 can adjust the focus distance of the parallel light so that the parallel light diffracted through the diffraction grating 154 is gathered into one focus according to each wavelength band. The line scan camera 158 may scan the light collected in one focus according to the respective wavelength bands through the focusing lens 156 in a line state to generate an image including a single layer of the teeth 300. For example, , And a CMOS camera.

The characteristics of a tomographic image taken by the optical coherence tomography apparatus 100 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. Fig. 3 is a photograph of an actual tooth cavity, and Fig. 4 is an optical tomographic image of an upper part of the teeth and an enamel part.

In FIG. 3, (a) is a photograph of an actual tooth, and (b) is an image which is 3D-displayed to measure a volume by taking a tooth in three dimensions. Here, A is the upper part of the tooth and B is the enamel part.

An optical tomographic image of a tooth in a state as shown in Fig. 3 is shown in Fig. Fig. 4 (A) is a section A of Fig. 3, which is a tomographic image showing the upper part of a tooth missing tooth enamel. Fig. 4 (b) is an optical tomographic image showing the enamel portion of the tooth, which is B minute in Fig. 3. As shown in Fig. 4, since the light irradiated for the diagnosis is not transmitted in the upper part of the tooth, information on the single layer can not be obtained, and the cavity part can be detected with respect to the part. It is also possible to detect the presence of cavities in enamel that is not exposed on the surface. Therefore, from this image, the remaining thickness or volume of the enamel can be accurately measured by the volume measuring unit 200 as described later.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the volume measuring unit 200 extracts the enamel region of a tooth from each B-scan tomographic image generated by the optical coherence tomography apparatus 100, And calculate the volume of the enamel by summing the calculated areas of a number of B-scan tomographic images.

5 to 7, the principle of the volume enamel volume measuring system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described first. FIG. 5 is a view for explaining the principle of measurement of a volume enamel volume measuring system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a view for explaining a measuring principle of a volume enamel volume measuring system according to an embodiment of the present invention FIG. 7 is a graph illustrating the principle of measurement of a volume enamel volume measuring system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.

5, when the longitudinal direction, the width direction, and the thickness direction are defined as the X axis, the Y axis, and the Z axis, respectively, for the tooth, in this specification, the A- Is defined for the X axis, and the C scan is defined for the Y axis. Thus, one B-scan tomographic image can be generated by B-scan and multiple B-scan tomographic images can be generated repeatedly by C-scan.

The enamel region needs to be extracted first from each of the tomographic images. It is possible to use an image segmentation method in which boundaries are detected by certain features such as color or brightness in an image and classified into respective regions. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, since the brightness of the image is different at the boundary between the enamel (or enamel) and the surrounding materials, the boundaries can be extracted thereby to zonalize a specific part such as enamel.

With respect to the area thus segmented, the area of the enamel can be calculated by counting pixels for the XZ axis in the area, and the enamel width can be calculated for each tomographic image along the Y axis, The volume can be calculated. For example, as shown in Fig. 7, since the length is determined for each pixel, the volume can be calculated by calculating the XZ area on the Y-axis basis and adding the area in the Y-axis direction.

As described above, according to one embodiment of the present invention, the optical coherence tomography apparatus 100 can acquire the depth information of the object, thereby making it possible to accurately and quickly calculate the remaining volume of the enamel of the tooth, And thus the risk of dental caries can be detected early.

2, the volume measuring unit 200 includes an image input unit 210, a scanning driving unit 220, a storage unit 230, a control unit 240, a boundary extraction unit 250, an area calculation unit 260, And a volume calculator 270.

The image input unit 210 can input a plurality of B-scan tomographic images taken by the optical coherence tomography apparatus 100 with respect to the teeth 300. The image input unit 210 may be an interface for storing the data output from the coherent tomography apparatus 100 in the storage unit 230.

The scanning driver 220 can drive the scanning probe 140 in the B-scan direction or the C-scan direction with respect to the teeth 300. [ For example, the scanning driving unit 220 may drive the scanning mirror 144, such as the galvanometer scanning mirror of FIG. 1, to move in the X-axis or the Y-axis. Here, the scanning driver 220 may drive the scanning probe 140 to perform C-scan at intervals smaller than one pixel width of the B-scan tomographic image. That is, when computing the enamel volume, the XZ area for each B-scan tomographic image is summed, so that the volume can be calculated more accurately by performing a C-scan at intervals less than a pixel unit. In the present embodiment, the scanning driving unit 220 is included in the volume measuring unit 200, but the present invention is not limited to this, and may be included in the optical coherence tomography apparatus 100.

The storage unit 230 stores a plurality of B-scan tomographic images taken from the optical coherence tomography apparatus 100, and the volume of enamel measured as described below can be stored. In the present embodiment, the storage unit 230 is described as being included in the volume measurement unit 200, but is not limited thereto. The storage unit 230 may be an external storage medium or a storage medium that can be accessed through communication means.

The control unit 240 controls the operation of each component of the volume measuring unit 200. For example, when the boundary extracting unit 250, the area calculating unit 260, and the volume calculating unit 270 are performed, The driving unit 220 and the storage unit 230 may be controlled to be interlocked with each other.

The boundary extracting unit 250 may extract boundaries of the enamel from the B-scan tomographic images input from the optical coherence tomography apparatus 100 and stored in the storage unit 230. For example, the boundary extracting unit 250 can extract boundaries according to the difference in brightness between the enamel and its surroundings using a median filter.

The area calculating unit 260 can calculate the area of the enamel area extracted from the boundary extracting unit 250 from among the respective B-scan tomographic images. At this time, the area calculating unit 260 can calculate the enamel area by counting the number of pixels in the corresponding area in the B-scan tomographic image.

When the enamel area calculation is completed for the C-scan image from the area calculator 260, that is, when the enamel area calculation for all the B-scan tomographic images is completed, the volume calculator 270 calculates the B- The enamel volume can be calculated by summing the areas computed from the image. At this time, since the C-scan image is composed of a plurality of B-scan tomographic images, the sum of all B-scan tomographic image areas corresponds to enamel volume.

According to this configuration, the embodiment of the present invention can quantify the state of the tooth cavity, accurately measure the remaining amount of enamel to detect the risk of the tooth cavity early, and thus ensure the reliability of the dental care . In addition, one embodiment of the present invention can quickly and accurately diagnose the volume of enamel in real time, alleviate the probability of misdiagnosis of the cavity, reduce the economic burden on the patients by enabling appropriate prescription immediately, It is possible to provide a more stable medical environment. In addition, one embodiment of the present invention can provide a microscale optical tomographic image and an enamel residual volume that can not be provided, and at the same time, it can be manufactured in a relatively inexpensive and small size.

Hereinafter, a method of measuring the volume of the enamel of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method of measuring the volume of enamel of a tooth according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The volume enamel volume measuring method 800 includes a step of photographing a tomographic image by the optical coherence tomography apparatus 100 (step S801), and a step of measuring the enamel volume from the tomographic image taken by the volume measuring section 200 (Step S802 to step S808).

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 8, first, the optical coherence tomography apparatus 100 is used to perform B-scan in the longitudinal direction of the tooth 300 and tooth-to- 300), and generate a plurality of B-scan tomographic images for the teeth 300 based on the reflected light (step S801).

For example, in the optical coherence tomography apparatus 100 of FIG. 1, when the light source 110 generates light, the optical coupler 120 divides the generated light, and the phase delay unit 130 is divided The light is received, phase scanned, reflected, and transmitted to the optical coupler 120, and then the scanning probe 140 B-scans the divided light in the longitudinal direction of the tooth 300 and C- The second reflected light from the tooth 300 can be transmitted. At this time, the scanning mirror 144 is moved with respect to the X-axis or Y-axis, that is, the longitudinal direction or the width of the teeth 300 so that the B-scan or the C- Direction and the scanning probe 140 may be driven to perform a C-scan at intervals less than one pixel width of the B-scan tomographic image. That is, when the volume of the enamel is calculated, since the XZ area for each B-scan tomographic image is summed, the volume can be calculated more accurately by performing it at intervals smaller than the pixel unit. The optical tomographic imaging unit 150 may then convert the transmitted first reflected light and the second reflected light into electrical signals to generate a plurality of B-scan tomographic images for the teeth 300.

Next, a C-scan image for the tooth 300 can be input (step S802). That is, the C-scan image including a plurality of B-scan tomographic images can be read from the storage unit 230, for example.

Next, one B-scan tomographic image of the input image can be selected (step S803). That is, the first B-scan tomographic image of the C-scan image can be selected as the next processing target.

Next, the enamel boundary can be extracted from the selected B-scan tomographic image (step S804). In this case, it is possible to use an image segmentation technique in which boundaries are detected by features such as color or brightness in an image and classified into respective regions. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the brightness of the image is different at the boundary between the enamel (or enamel) and the surrounding material, so that the boundary can be extracted and a specific portion such as enamel can be searched , For example, the boundary can be extracted according to the difference in brightness between the enamel and its surroundings using a median filter.

Next, the area of the enamel area extracted from the selected B-scan tomographic image can be calculated (step S805). At this time, the enamel area can be calculated by counting the number of pixels in the area in the B-scan tomographic image. That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the area of the area, that is, the enamel, can be calculated by counting the pixels with respect to the X-Z axis in the area with respect to the area obtained by extracting the boundary.

Next, it is determined whether the calculation of the area is completed for all of the plurality of B-scan tomographic images (step S806). If it is determined that the calculation of the area is not completed for all of the plurality of B-scan tomographic images, - The scan tomographic image is selected (step S807), and the process returns to step S804 to repeat the enamel boundary extraction and enamel area calculation from step S804 to step S806.

As a result of the determination in step S806, if it is determined that the area calculation is completed for all of the plurality of B-scan tomographic images, the enamel volume can be calculated by summing the area calculated from each B-scan tomographic image (step S808 ). That is, when the enamel area calculation for all B-scan tomographic images is completed, the enamel volume can be calculated by summing the areas calculated from each B-scan tomographic image. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the enamel volume can be calculated by summing the enamel widths for each tomographic image along the Y-axis. At this time, since the C-scan image is composed of a plurality of B-scan tomographic images, the sum of the areas of all B-scan tomographic images corresponds to the enamel volume. Thus, since the length per pixel is determined, the volume can be calculated by calculating the XZ area on the Y-axis basis and by summing the areas in the Y-axis direction.

According to this method, an embodiment of the present invention can quantify the state of the tooth cavity, accurately measure the remaining amount of the enamel to detect the risk of the tooth cavity early, and thus ensure the reliability of the dental care . In addition, one embodiment of the present invention can quickly and accurately diagnose the volume of enamel in real time, alleviate the probability of misdiagnosis of the cavity, reduce the economic burden on the patients by enabling appropriate prescription immediately, It is possible to provide a more stable medical environment. In addition, one embodiment of the present invention can provide a microscale optical tomographic image and an enamel residual volume that can not be provided, and at the same time, it can be manufactured in a relatively inexpensive and small size.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

10: Volume measurement system of tooth enamel
100: optical coherence tomography apparatus
110: Light source 120: Optocoupler
130: phase delay unit 132: collimator
134: focusing lens 136: reference mirror
140: scanning probe 142: collimator
144: scanning mirror 146: scan lens
150: optical tomographic part 152: collimator
154: diffraction grating 156: focusing lens
158: line scan camera 200: volume measuring unit
210: image input unit 220:
230: storage unit 240: control unit
250: boundary extracting unit 260: area calculating unit
270: volume computing unit 300: tooth

Claims (15)

Scanning coherence tomography to produce a plurality of B-scan tomographic images for the tooth based on the reflected light, B-scan in the longitudinal direction of the tooth, C-scan in the width direction to illuminate the tooth, Device; And
The enamel region of the tooth is extracted from each of the generated B-scan tomographic images to calculate an area of each of the B-scan tomographic images, and the calculated areas of the plurality of B- And a volumetric portion for measuring the volume of the tooth enamel. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the volume measuring unit comprises:
An image input unit into which the plurality of B-scan tomographic images of the teeth are input;
A boundary extracting unit for extracting enamel boundaries from the inputted B-scan tomographic images;
An area calculating unit for calculating an area of the extracted enamel area in each B-scan tomographic image; And
And a volume calculator for calculating a volume of the enamel by summing the areas calculated from the respective B-scan tomographic images. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the boundary extractor extracts the boundary using a median filter. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the area calculating unit calculates the area of the enamel by counting the number of pixels of the area in the B-scan tomographic image. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the volumetric portion further comprises a storage portion in which the plurality of B-scan tomographic images are stored and the volume of the measured enamel is stored. 3. The method of claim 2,
The optical coherence tomography apparatus comprises:
A light source for generating light;
An optical coupler for dividing the light generated from the light source;
A phase delay unit that receives the light split from the optical coupler, performs phase scanning and reflection, and transmits the first reflected light to the optical coupler;
A scanning probe for transmitting the second reflected light from the tooth to the optical coupler by irradiating the tooth with B-scan in the length direction of the teeth and C-scan in the width direction by splitting the incident light from the optical coupler, ; And
And an optical tomographic imaging unit for converting the first reflected light and the second reflected light incident on the optocoupler into an electrical signal to generate a plurality of B-scan tomographic images of the tooth, system. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the volume measuring unit further comprises a scanning driver for driving the scanning probe in the B-scan direction or the C-scan direction. 8. The method of claim 7,
Wherein the scanning driver drives the scanning probe to perform the C-scan at intervals less than one pixel width of the B-scan tomographic image. Scanning a length of the tooth using a coherent tomography apparatus and irradiating the tooth with C-scan in the width direction, and performing a plurality of B-scans Generating a tomographic image; And
The enamel region of the tooth is extracted from each of the generated B-scan tomographic images to calculate an area of each of the B-scan tomographic images, and the calculated areas of the plurality of B- And measuring the volume of the tooth enamel. 10. The method of claim 9,
The measuring step
Inputting the plurality of B-scan tomographic images for the tooth;
Selecting one B-scan tomographic image of the input image;
Extracting enamel boundaries from the selected B-scan tomographic image;
Calculating an area of the extracted enamel area in the selected B-scan tomographic image; And
Determining whether the operation has been completed for all of the plurality of B-scan tomographic images; And
And calculating a volume of the enamel by summing the areas calculated from each B-scan tomographic image when it is determined that the operation has been completed for all of the plurality of B-scan tomographic images. How to measure. 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the determining step comprises the step of selecting the next B-scan tomographic image and repeating the extracting step and / or the determining step when it is determined that the calculation is not completed for all of the plurality of B-scan tomographic images. Method of measuring volume of tooth enamel. 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the extracting step extracts the boundary using a median filter. 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein calculating the area calculates the area of the enamel by counting the number of pixels in the area in the B-scan tomographic image. 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the generating step performs the C-scan at an interval less than one pixel width of the B-scan tomographic image. 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the generating comprises:
Generating light;
Dividing the generated light;
Receiving the split light, performing phase scan and reflection, and transmitting the first reflected light;
Scanning the divided light in a longitudinal direction of the teeth and irradiating the teeth with C-scan in a width direction to transmit a second reflected light from the teeth; And
And converting the delivered first reflected light and the second reflected light to an electrical signal to produce a plurality of B-scan tomographic images for the tooth.

Images