Dental caries (cavities) is the most prevalent disease worldwide; however, current detection methods suffer from issues associated with sensitivity, subjective interpretations, and false positive identification of carious lesions. Therefore, there is a great need for the development of more sensitive, noninvasive imaging methods. The 30 nm core@shell NaYF4; Yb20%, Er2%@NaYF4 upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), exhibiting strong upconversion emission from erbium upon excitation at 975 nm, were used in the imaging of locations of demineralized enamel and oral biofilm formation for the detection of dental caries. UCNPs were modified with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) or poly-d-lysine (PDL), and targeting peptides were conjugated to their surface with affinity for either hydroxyapatite (HA), the material dentin is composed of, or the caries causing bacteria Streptococcus mutans. A statistical difference in the binding of targeted vs nontargeted UCNPs to HA was observed after 15 min, using both upconversion fluorescence of UCNP (p < 0.001) and elemental analysis (p = 0.0091). Additionally, using the HA targeted UCNPs, holes drilled in the enamel of bovine teeth with diameters of 1.0 and 0.5 mm were visible by the green emission after a 20 min incubation with no observable nonspecific binding. A statistical difference was also observed in the binding of targeted versus nontargeted UCNPs to S. mutans biofilms. This difference was observed after 15 min, using the fluorescence measurements (p = 0.0125), and only 10 min (p < 0.001) using elemental analysis via ICP-OES measurements of Y3+ concentration present in the biofilms. These results highlight the potential of these UCNPs for use in noninvasive imaging diagnosis of oral disease.
© 2023 The Authors. Co-published by Nanjing University and American Chemical Society.