Summary of: Estimation of remaining dentine thickness below deep lesions of caries

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate agreement between the estimated remaining dentine thickness (RDT) under lesions of caries, measured from a conventional invivo periapical radiograph, compared directly to the measured RDT of the tooth. Additional investigation was to be made for agreement between invitro digital radiographs and conventional radiographs. Design and setting: This was a cross-sectional, single centre study at Leeds Dental Institute, United Kingdom, in 2009. Subjects, materials and methods: Twenty-five carious teeth with occlusal or proximal lesions were collected from patients aged 19to 82years attending the Oral Surgery Department. Each patient had a pre-extraction invivo periapical radiograph of the tooth demonstrating an intact layer of dentine below the lesions of caries. Post-extraction invitro digital and conventional radiographs were taken. Main outcome measures: Agreement of the RDT was analysed using Bland-Altman plots. Results: A trend for the radiographic images to over-estimate the RDT compared to the tooth was found. Greater over-estimation of the RDT by conventional radiographs both invivo and invitro was shown compared to the invitro digital images in the majority of cases. Conclusion: This analysis has demonstrated it is not possible to estimate the dimension of the RDT from a periapical radiograph. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.