ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,544,005, issued on Feb. 10, was assigned to Ivoclar Vivadent AG (Schaan, Liechtenstein).
"Method for detecting demineralization of tooth substance" was invented by Alwin Kienle (Blaustein, Germany) and Steffen Nothelfer (Nersingen, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method for detecting demineralization of a tooth substance, including the steps of irradiating (S101) a structured light pattern onto the tooth substance; detecting (S102) a light intensity of the light pattern remitted from the volume of the tooth substance; and determining (S103) demineralization of the tooth substance based on the detected light intensity."
The pate...