PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the effect of changing the kilovoltage peak (kVp) on the radiographic assessment of dental caries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy-five extracted posterior teeth with proximal caries or apparently sound proximal surfaces were radiographed with conventional E-speed films and a photostimulable phosphor system using 60 kVp and 70 kVp for the caries assessment. The images were evaluated by three oral radiologists and compared with the results of the stereomicroscope analysis. RESULTS: No statistically significant difference was found between 60 kVp and 70 kVp for the caries detection, determination of caries extension into dentin, and caries severity in either the conventional or the digital images. Good to very good inter-observer and intra-observer agreements were found for both kilovoltage values on the conventional and digital images. CONCLUSION: Changing the kilovoltage between 60 kVp and 70 kVp had no obvious effect on the detection of proximal caries or determination of its extension or severity.
Dental Caries ; Dentin ; Diagnosis, Oral ; Radiography* ; Radiography, Dental ; Radiography, Dental, Digital ; Tooth

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prediction validity of the caries activity test with a sulfisomidine mixture (SAHS test). METHODS: This longitudinal follow-up study was conducted for 3 years. The subjects were 155 elementary schoolchildren. Oral examination was performed by examining each tooth surface of the subjects. The number of teeth with new caries lesions was calculated by comparing between the baseline data of the initial oral examination and the results of the second oral examination performed after 3 years. The Dentocult SM test was used as the reference in the analysis of the caries prediction validity of the SAHS test. The items of the validity test for carries prediction were as follows: sensitivity, specificity, predictive value, and likelihood ratio. RESULTS: The correlation between new caries lesions and the SAHS test scores was greater than that between new caries lesions and the Dentocult SM test scores. The receiver-operating analysis revealed that the area under the curve of the SAHS test was higher than that of the Dentocult SM test. The caries prediction validity of the SAHS test (grade 12) was as follows: sensitivity, 0.71-0.70; specificity, 0.60-0.58; positive predictive value, 0.79-0.78; negative predictive value, 0.49 (screening criterion 5). The SAHS test scores were similar to or higher than the scores in the items of the Dentocult SM test. CONCLUSIONS: The SAHS test is considered useful for clinical applications.
Child ; Dental Caries ; Dental Caries Activity Tests ; Diagnosis, Oral ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Humans ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sulfisomidine* ; Tooth

PURPOSE: This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy and utility of panoramic radiograph for the improvement of the periodic oral examinations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Clinical examinations and panoramic examinations were done for the 242 subjects of oral examinations. The results of panoramic radiograph interpretation were compared with the clinical findings. Two questionnaires were created. One was carried out before the panoramic examination and the other done afterwards, to find out the subjects' cognition and satisfaction for the clinical and panoramic examinations. RESULTS: 1. Panoramic findings showed a higher detection rate of 31.9% for periodontal diseases, and 23.1% for dental caries than clinical findings. CONCLUSION: The panoramic examination was revealed to improve the effectiveness of the periodic oral examination and to increase the satisfaction of the subjects of examination.
Cognition ; Dental Caries ; Diagnosis, Oral ; Periodontal Diseases ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Radiography, Panoramic

PURPOSE: We investigated correlations between the findings of oral examinations and panoramic radiography in order to determine the efficacy of using panoramic radiographs in screening examinations. METHODS: This study included patients who visited dental clinics at National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) Ilsan Hospital for checkups during 2009–2015 and underwent panoramic radiographic examinations within 1 year prior to the oral examinations. Among the 48,006 patients who received checkups, 1,091 were included in this study. The data were evaluated using the Cohen kappa and interrater agreement coefficients. Accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were calculated using data from the panoramic radiographs as true positive diagnoses. RESULTS: The interrater agreement coefficient for occlusal caries was 28.8%, and the Cohen kappa coefficient was 0.043 between the oral and panoramic radiographic examinations. Root caries and subgingival calculus were only found on the radiographs, while gingival inflammation was found only by the oral examinations. The oral examinations had a specificity for detecting occlusal dental caries of 100%, while their sensitivity for proximal dental caries and supragingival calculus was extremely low (14.0% and 18.3%, respectively) compared to the panoramic radiographic examinations. The oral examinations showed a relatively low sensitivity of 66.2% and a specificity of 43.7% in detecting tooth loss compared with panoramic radiography. CONCLUSIONS: Panoramic radiography can provide information that is difficult to obtain in oral examinations, such as root caries, furcation involvement, and subgingival calculus, which are factors that can directly affect the survival rate of teeth. It therefore seems reasonable and necessary to add panoramic radiography to large-scale health checkup programs such as that provided by the NHIS.
Calculi ; Dental Caries ; Dental Clinics ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Oral ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Mass Screening ; National Health Programs ; Radiography, Dental ; Radiography, Panoramic ; Root Caries ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Survival Rate ; Tooth ; Tooth Loss

PURPOSE: The purpose of this review is to evaluate the possibility of panoramic radiography as a national oral examination tool. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This report was carried out by review of the literatures. RESULTS: Panoramic radiography has sufficient diagnostic accuracy in dental caries, periodontal diseases, and other lesions. Also, the effective dose of panoramic radiography is lower than traditional full-mouth periapical radiography. CONCLUSION: Panoramic radiography will improve the efficacy of dental examination in national oral examination. However, more studies are required to evaluate the benefit, financial cost, and operation time and also to make selection criteria and quality management program.
Dental Caries ; Diagnosis, Oral ; Mass Screening ; Outcome and Process Assessment (Health Care) ; Patient Selection ; Periodontal Diseases ; Radiation Dosage ; Radiography, Panoramic

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of missing and impacted third molars in people aged 25 years and above. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study sample of 3,799 patients was chosen randomly from patients who visited Pusan National University Dental Hospital and had panoramic radiographs taken. The data collected included presence and impaction state, angulation, and depth of impaction of third molars, and radiographically detected lesions of third molars and adjacent second molars. RESULTS: A greater percentage of men than women retained at least one third molar. The incidence of third molars decreased with increasing age. The incidence of partially impacted third molars greatly declined after the age of 30. Vertically impacted maxillary third molars and horizontally impacted mandibular third molars were most frequent in all age groups. Among the maxillary third molars, those impacted below the cervical line of the second molar were most frequent in all age groups, and among the mandibular third molars, deeply impacted third molars were most frequent in those aged over 40. Dental caries was the most common radiographic lesion of the third molars. Mesioangularly impacted third molars showed radiographic lesions in 13 (9.5%) adjacent maxillary second molars and 117 (27.4%) mandibular second molars. CONCLUSION: The number of remaining third molars decreased and the percentage of Class C depth increased with age. Caries was the most frequent lesion in third molars. Partially impacted mesioangular third molars showed a high incidence of caries or periodontal bone loss of the adjacent second molar. Regular oral examination will be essential to keep asymptomatic third molars in good health.
Adult* ; Alveolar Bone Loss ; Dental Caries ; Diagnosis, Oral ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Molar ; Molar, Third* ; Prevalence* ; Radiography, Panoramic ; Tooth, Impacted

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a clinical preventative care program, based on a dental hygiene process (accessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, evaluation; ADPIE) in a dental clinic, by analyzing patient recognition, knowledge, practice, and satisfaction with respect to oral health. The collected data (in percentages) were analyzed Fisher's exact test and paired t-test using IBM SPSS ver. 21.0 (IBM Co., USA). This study demonstrated a significant difference in oral health knowledge, recognition, and practice before and after the clinical preventive care program (p<0.05). The results were significant in the individual preventive plan within the planning stage, and in the professional teeth cleaning implementation stage (p<0.05). This result can be attributed to the sympathy of the dental hygienist (p<0.05). There was a positive correlation between recommending dental checkups and regular checking of the (r=0.552, p<0.05), undergoing radiography (r=0.434, p<0.01), following an individual preventive plan (r=0.568, p<0.01), undergoing proximal machine teeth cleaning (r=0.437, p<0.05), following tooth brushing instructions (r=0.552, p<0.05), and the evaluation results (r=1.000, p<0.05). Our results demonstrate, that the clinical preventive care program, based on dental hygiene, is an effective program. Given the positive effect of dental revisits and patient recommendations promoting dental hygienists, it is hoped that this preventative program will be widely used.
Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists ; Diagnosis ; Hope ; Humans ; Oral Health* ; Oral Hygiene* ; Radiography ; Tooth

The scanora X-ray unit uses the principles of narrow beam radiography and spiral tomography. Starting with a panoramic overview as a scout image, multiple tomographic projection could be selected. This study evaluated the accuracy of spiral tomography in comparison to routine panoramic radiography for dental implant treatment planing. An experimental study was performed on a cadaver mandible to assess the accuracy of panoramic radiography and spiral tomography film images for measurement of metallic spheres. After radiographic images of the metallic spheres on the surgical stent were measured and corrected for a fixed magnification of radiographic images, following results were obtained. 1. In the optimal position of the mandible, the minimal horizontal and vertical distortion was evident in the panoramic radiography images. The mean horizontal and vertical magnification error in anterior sites was 5.25% and 0.75%, respectively. The mean horizontal and vertical magnification error in posterior sites was 0.50% and 1.50%, respectively. 2. In the displaced forward or in and eccentric position of the mandible, the magnification error of the panoramic radiography images increased significantly over the optimal position. Overall, the mean horizontal magnification error of the anterior site in the different position changed dramatically within a range of -17.25% to 39.00%, compared to the posterior range of -5.25% to 8.50%. However, the mean vertical magnification error stayed with the range of 0.5% to 3.75% for all the mandibular positions. 3. The magnification effects in the tomographic scans were nearly identical for the anterior and posterior with a range of 2.00% to 5.75% in the horizontal and 4.50% to 5.50% in the vertical dimension, respectively. 4. A statistically significant difference between the anterior and posterior measurements was found in the horizontal measurements of the panoramic radiography images of the displaced dorward and backward position of the mandiblw(P<0.05). also a significant difference between the optimal panoramic and tomographic projections was found only in the vertical measurement (P<0.05).
Cadaver ; Dental Implants ; Mandible ; Radiography ; Radiography, Dental, Digital ; Radiography, Panoramic ; Stents ; Vertical Dimension

Dental age plays an important role in age estimation. It has often been used together with skeletal age to improve the accuracy of age estimation abroad, but seldom performed in China. As a noninvasive technology, dental radiological imaging has been widely used in age estimation. By observing the age-related changes such as the pulp cavity and development of crown and root on radiographs. Gleiser and Hunt, as well as Demirjian have developed different methods to determine the age of human. Demirjian's method has been proved to be more accurate but with limitation when used in persons of eighteen and above. The accuracy and reliability of the measurements on pulp cavity could be improved as the development of computed tomography with its high resolution and intelligent software. As a convenient and accurate method, age estimation from dental computed tomographs would be more promising in the future for forensic scientists and anthropologists.
Age Determination by Teeth/methods* ; Dental Pulp/diagnostic imaging* ; Forensic Dentistry ; Humans ; Radiography, Panoramic/methods* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods*

PURPOSE: This study aimed to provide comparative measurements of the effective dose from direct and indirect digital panoramic units according to phantoms and exposure parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Dose measurements were carried out using a head phantom representing an average man (175 cm tall, 73.5 kg male) and a limbless whole body phantom representing an average woman (155 cm tall, 50 kg female). Lithium fluoride thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) chips were used for the dosimeter. Two direct and 2 indirect digital panoramic units were evaluated in this study. Effective doses were derived using 2007 International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommendations. RESULTS: The effective doses of the 4 digital panoramic units ranged between 8.9 microSv and 37.8 microSv. By using the head phantom, the effective doses from the direct digital panoramic units (37.8 microSv, 27.6 microSv) were higher than those from the indirect units (8.9 microSv, 15.9 microSv). The same panoramic unit showed the difference in effective doses according to the gender of the phantom, numbers and locations of TLDs, and kVp. CONCLUSION: To reasonably assess the radiation risk from various dental radiographic units, the effective doses should be obtained with the same numbers and locations of TLDs, and with standard hospital exposure. After that, it is necessary to survey the effective doses from various dental radiographic units according to the gender with the corresponding phantom.
Female ; Fluorides ; Head ; Humans ; Lithium ; Lithium Compounds ; Radiation Dosage ; Radiography, Dental, Digital ; Radiography, Panoramic