In Germany, approximately one in two root canal treatments requires additional intervention within three years of the initial procedure, largely because no clinically established instrument enables direct imaging of the narrow, geometrically complex root canal system. To address this gap, we have joined forces with our long-standing collaborators at TU Dresden led by Dr Robert Kuschmierz (research group Prof Murawski) and with the team of Prof Hannig at University Hospital Dresden. Over the next three years, we will work together in the BMBF‑funded project DentoScope (funding code 03VP12722), which launched on 30 January 2026.
In particular, we will validate fibre-based endoscopes as a flexible yet minimally invasive imaging tool for endodontics. The underlying technological approach — twisted, aperiodic multicore fibres with nanoimprinted phase masks on the fibre facets — has been developed in recent years by our team together with Dr Robert Kuschmierz’s group; see our joint publication. Within the new project, we will focus on technological and economic aspects of fibre fabrication, such as reproducibility and biocompatibility. In parallel, colleagues in Dresden will conduct validation experiments on various imaging modalities in both simulated and real root canals. These results will lay the foundation for successful subsequent technology transfer of multicore‑fibre‑based endoscopes originally demonstrated by our team.
