Comparison of periapical radiography, panoramic, and cone-beam CT in the detection of dental caries in dog teeth

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of panoramic, periapical and two different Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) devices in the detection of dental caries of dog teeth ex vivo. A total of 880 teeth were investigated, 33 of which were with caries, whereas; 33 healthy teeth were the controls. Periapical, panoramic and CBCT scans were made for the assessment of the teeth. All images were evaluated separately by two observers experienced in image interpretation. The presence or absence of occlusal caries was scored using a 5-point scale. Kappa values were calculated to assess intra and interobserver agreement. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to compare the effectiveness of different imaging methods in the detection of dental caries. For both observers, the order of success of the image sets in the estimation of the caries tooth was CBCT Morita, CBCT Iluma, periapical and panoramic radiograph (Area Under Curve (AUC): 0.929, 0.882, 0.861, and 0.704 for observer 1, AUC: 0.927, 0.896, 0.875, and 0.693 for observer 2, respectively). CBCT was found to be the best imaging method for the ex vivo detection of caries in dog teeth. In addition, panoramic images performed worse than all other modalities.