Safety and Performance Evaluation of the Calcivis System

Dental caries (tooth decay) is a significant clinical and public health problem. The development of caries lesions involves a net mineral loss of dental tissue, which can lead to progressive loss of tooth structure and associated pain and disease. Detecting, assessing, diagnosis and treating such lesions are core activities in dentistry. Currently the main detection and diagnosis aids are visual inspection and the used of a probe, together with X-ray images. Determination of the activity status of a lesion (how likely it is to progress) is required to assess treatment needs. Currently methods are problematic and involve the clinicians' subjective assessment and / or monitoring of lesions progression over a number of visits.

A previous clinical study on the prototype of the Calcivis System has been conducted. The results concluded that the Calcivis System was safe for use and the level of agreement between elevated luminescence and areas of expected activity was above 70% and not due to chance (NCT02098304).

This prospective, multi-centre clinical study has been designed to assess the safety and performance of the Calcivis System. The device under evaluation comprises a hand-held customized intra-oral camera which takes images of a lesion on a tooth surface immediately before and after application of a disclosing solution which contains a bioluminescent photo-protein. The photo-protein detects free calcium ions on the tooth surface and produces a light signal if the caries lesion is active.

For the clinical study, patients identified by the Investigator from those attending routine dental appointments, who meet all the inclusion and exclusion criteria will be approached to discuss their possible participation in the study. Patients will be given a Patient Information Sheet to read and time to consider their participation in the study. If they are happy to participate they will attend for two Study Visits, 7 to 14 days apart. Written informed consent will be taken before any study procedures are conducted. As children under the age of 16 are included in this study, parent / guardian consent will be taken where appropriate.

At study Visit 1, demographics, relevant medications and oral hygiene data will be collected. The dentist will carry out an oral examination and the tooth / teeth identified as per inclusion / exclusion criteria, will be cleaned with prophy paste, rinsed with tap water and a 3-in-1 air / water spray before being air dried and staged as per ICDAS coding. Reference intra-oral photographs will be taken of each tooth. The tooth / teeth surfaces will again be air dried before imaging with the Calcivis System, immediately before and after application of the disclosing solution. A maximum of one sound (unrestored, accessible, free smooth surface of a canine or incisor, away from the gingival margin with no visible caries lesion) and one unsound (erupting or erupted molar or premolar with a visible lesion deemed to be active, in a plaque stagnation area) tooth will be imaged per patient. after imaging is completed, patients rinse out with tap water. Adverse events will be collected throughout. The dentist will then share the Calcivis images of the teeth with the patient. Post imaging questionnaires will be completed by each patient at the end of Study Visit 1 and user questionnaires completed by the dental team at the end of each Study Visit 1 day.

Patients will return for (Study Visit 2), 7 to 14 days after Visit 1, when a final oral examination will take place. Any adverse events observed or volunteered by the patient will be recorded.

The study images will be independently reviewed by another dentist, for agreement between expected lesion activity / inactive teeth and the Calcivis System.