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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) plays an indispensable role in healthcare. In particular, its per- formance is unrivaled for soft tissues, being the only known technique capable of in-vivo imaging of deep biological tissues with high spatial resolution and tissue contrast while avoiding harmful radiation. But despite MRI’s unquestionable success, imaging hard tissues (such as bone, tendons, or teeth) remains problematic due to the short lifetime and low strength of signals emitted by solid-state matter.

In the last decade, sequences such as Zero Echo Time have been proposed and successfully tested for dental applications, but only at ultra-high fields (B0 > 4 T). Low-field systems (B0 < 0.3 T) constitute a promising inexpensive alternative to standard MRI setups, but the reduced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can easily lead to long acquisition times incompatible with clinical conditions.

The MRILab at i3M and their spin-off Tesoro Imaging have recently demonstrated low-field dental MRI of ex-vivo samples, developing new protocols based on spin-locking and dynamical decoupling of spin baths. These tools are arguably crucial for translation into dental clinical practice, and they have been patented by the group. Presently, we are starting to test what could be the first low-field prototype useful for in-vivo oral exploration.