  Imaging of teeth is very important to doctors in the diagnosis and treatment
of dental diseases. The main imaging modality currently used is Cone-Beam
Computed Tomography (CBCT), which however suffers from ionizing radiation
causing potential damage to human body. In this work, photoacoustic imaging is
proposed for the imaging of tooth, specifically the tooth root. A photoacoustic
digital phantom of the tooth is generated based on clinical CBCT data. The
roots encased by alveolar bone are imaged by using the realistic photoacoustic
digital phantom in the simulation study. Several image reconstruction
algorithms are used and compared to remove the artifacts caused by
heterogeneous acoustic velocity distribution.
