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Logo of bmcorhlBioMed Centralsearchsubmit a manuscriptregisterthis articleBMC Oral Health
 
BMC Oral Health. 2012; 12: 10.
Published online 2012 April 27. doi:  10.1186/1472-6831-12-10
PMCID: PMC3444379
Copyright ©2012 Boye et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Comparison of photographic and visual assessment of occlusal caries with histology as the reference standard
Uriana Boye,corresponding author#1 Tanya Walsh,#2 Iain A Pretty,#3 and Martin Tickle#1
1The Oral Health Unit, School of Dentistry, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester, UK
2The Cochrane Oral Health Group, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester, UK
3The Dental Health Unit, 3A Skelton House, Lloyd Street North, Manchester, M15 6SH, UK
corresponding authorCorresponding author.
#Contributed equally.
Uriana Boye: tboye/at/btinternet.com; Tanya Walsh: tanya.walsh/at/manchester.ac.uk; Iain A Pretty: Iain.A.Pretty/at/manchester.ac.uk; Martin Tickle: martin.tickle/at/northwest.nhs.uk
Received September 27, 2011; Accepted April 27, 2012.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Abstract
Background
The purpose of this study was to compare diagnostic performance for the detection of caries using photographs with an established visual examination method and histological sections as the reference standard.
Methods
50 extracted permanent teeth were assessed for the presence of occlusal caries by 9 examiners using two methods; traditional visual examination developed by BASCD and photographs produced by an intra-oral camera. For both methods, diagnoses were made at “caries into dentine” level. The teeth were histologically sectioned and the diagnostic decisions using visual and photographic assessment were compared to the histological reference standard. Inter- and intra- examiner reliability for the methods was assessed and weighted kappa values were calculated.
Results
The visual examination method had a median sensitivity value of 65.6% and a median specificity value of 82.4%. The photographic assessments method had a median sensitivity of 81.3% and a median specificity of 82.4%.
Conclusions
The photographic assessments method had a higher sensitivity for caries detection than the visual examination. The two methods had comparable specificities and good intra- and inter- examiner reliability.
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