A quantitative diagnostic method for dental caries would improve oral health, which directly affects the quality of life. Here we describe the preparation and application of Ir/IrOx pH sensors, which are used to measure the surface pH of dental caries. The pH level is used as an indicator to distinguish between active and arrested caries. After a dentist visually inspected and defined 18 extracted dentinal caries at various positions as active or arrested caries, the surface pH values of sound and caries areas were directly measured with an Ir/IrOx pH sensor with a diameter of 300 μm as a dental explorer. The average pH values of the sound root, the arrested caries, and active caries were 6.85, 6.07, and 5.30, respectively. The pH obtained with an Ir/IrOx sensor was highly correlated with the inspection results by the dentist, indicating that the types of caries were successfully categorized. This caries testing technique using a micro Ir/IrOx pH sensor provides an accurate quantitative caries evaluation and has potential in clinical diagnosis.

中文翻译：

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使用Micro Ir / IrOx pH传感器在牙齿表面进行pH映射以定量诊断龋齿

龋齿的定量诊断方法将改善口腔健康，这直接影响生活质量。在这里，我们描述了Ir / IrOx pH传感器的制备和应用，该传感器用于测量龋齿的表面pH。pH值用作区分活动龋齿和停滞龋齿的指标。牙医进行目视检查并将18个不同位置的提取出的龋齿定义为活动或被捕的龋齿后，直接用直径300μm的Ir / IrOx pH传感器作为探牙仪测量声音和龋齿区域的表面pH值。根的平均pH值是6.85，停滞的龋齿是6.07，活动的龋齿是5.30。用Ir / IrOx传感器获得的pH与牙医的检查结果高度相关，表示龋齿类型已成功分类。这种使用微型Ir / IrOx pH传感器的龋齿检测技术可提供准确的定量龋齿评估，并具有临床诊断潜力。