Publication: Validity and reproducibility of a laser fluorescence system for detecting the activity of white-spot lesions on free smooth surfaces in vivo
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Date
Advisor
Coadvisor
Graduate program
Undergraduate course
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Karger
Type
Article
Access right
Acesso restrito
Abstract
The aim of the study was to determine the reproducibility and validity of DIAGNOdent in detecting active and arrested caries lesions on free smooth surfaces. Volunteers were selected from state schools of Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil. Overall, 220 lesions were clinically examined. Two specially trained ('calibrated') examiners performed both clinical and laser evaluations independently, and after a 1-week interval, the examinations were repeated, the intra-examiner agreement for the laser evaluation was substantial (kappa(ex1) = 0.79, kappa(ex2) = 0.71). There was almost perfect agreement between the two examiners for the clinical examination (kappa(ex1) = 0.95, kappa(ex2) = 0.85). The inter-examiner agreement showed substantial reproducibility (kappa = 0.77) for the laser examination and almost perfect agreement (kappa = 0.85) for the clinical evaluation. The validation criterion was the clinical examination of white spots, recorded as active or arrested. The sensitivity was 0.72 and the specificity was 0.73, which indicates that the DIAGNOdent was a good auxiliary method for detecting incipient caries lesions on free smooth surfaces. The utilization of both methods can improve the efficacy of caries diagnosis. Copyright (C) 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel.
Description
Keywords
dental caries, free smooth surfaces, laser fluorescence, reproducibility, validity
Language
English
Citation
Caries Research. Basel: Karger, v. 36, n. 1, p. 19-24, 2002.
