Importance

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Abstract

A dental apparatus uses a white light interferometer (7) and has an emitter (31) for emitting measurement radiation toward a tooth, a receiver (31) for receiving measurement radiation reflected by the tooth, superposition equipment (21) for superposing reference radiation and reflected measurement radiation, and a detector (23) for detecting the superposed radiation and generating an interferometric signal representing the superposed radiation. The emitter (31) and receiver (31) are in the distal end (5) of a dental instrument (1) that can be brought close to the tooth. A control unit (13) causes the white light interferometer (7) to carry out depth scans of the tooth. An analyzer (9) receives the interferometric signal from the detector (23) and determines a distance to the pulp of the tooth from its surface. A warning device (11) is connected to the analyzer (9) and emits a signal when the distance reaches a predetermined minimum distance.

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First Claim