Measurement of moisture content of oral mucosa by using optical fiber probe

An optical fiber probe for measurement of water content of oral mucosa is proposed. The probe is composed of silica optical fibers to radiate white light and fibers for detection of diffusely reflected light from the sample. Firstly, by experiment using gelatin film, it is confirmed that the intensity of absorption peak of water at 1450-nm wavelength linearly increases with water content. As a result of in-vivo experiment using human tongue as a sample, it is shown that water content can be measured by the diffuse reflectance detected by the proposed method.