Detection of cavitated proximal carious lesions in permanent teeth, a visual and radiographic assessment.

Detection of proximal carious lesion involves the combination of clinical and radiographic methods, both with inherent difficulties. The present cross-sectional study aimed at estimating the prevalence of cavitation in proximal carious lesions, based on a direct clinical assessment of previously detected radiographic lesions, in permanent molars and premolars. Proximal dental surfaces were radiographically evaluated using the ADA coding system and cavitation was determined through clinical visual examination of the surfaces after separation with elastomeric bands. One-hundred and twenty-six patients attending the dental clinics at the University of Talca were examined comprising 508 proximal surfaces with radiographic codes ranging from E1 to D3. Two examiners were trained and calibrated for radiographic and clinical detection of proximal lesions. Most participants were females (61.9%). The age mean of participants was 28.7 (0.8) years old. A total of 22.2% of the examined surfaces were cavitated. Only few lesions coded as E1 (n=4; 2.1%) and E2 (n=9; 9.8%) were cavitated. Fifty D1 (35.5%) and 22 D2 (41.5%) lesions were cavitated after separation. Most lesions coded as D3 (n=28; 84.8%) were cavitated. The multilevel binary regression model (p=0.003) demonstrated that sex, age, jaw, tooth type, surface and side were not associated with the likelihood of having proximal cavitation. Challenging conventional wisdom, most D1 and D2 lesions were not cavitated. Combining detection me...

Source: Caries Research - May 23, 2022 Category: Dentistry Source Type: research