Abstract
Many authors have developed laser based diagnosis systams for dental caries.
In Recent years, DIAGNOdent® was reported as having reproducibility in permanent tooth caries, but in caries of the primary teeth this was not clear.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the laser-based caries diagnosis system DIAGNOdent® and the digital radiographic methods for the primary teeth.
Seventeen primary teeth and fourteen permanent teeth with caries were prepared for the examination. The approximal surface of each tooth was examined using DIAGNOdent® and subsequently digital radiography of the teeth was taken for the radiographic diagnosis of each surface. The radiography was analyzed with 256 gray scales using a computer system and the depth of the caries regions was measured by comparison of the density of the caries surface healthy regions of the tooth.
The values of under thirty were 0.06±0.04cm and 0.08±0.01cm of caries depth, the maximum values as 99 were 0.18±0.04cm and 0.23±0.03cm of caries depth for the primary and the permanent teeth.
The correlation coefficients between the radiographic analysis of the caries depth and the DIAGNOdent® analysis were rs=0.800(p<0.01)for the primary teeth and rs=0.692(p<0.01)for the permanent teeth.
These results show a high correlation between the results with laser diagnosis systems and those with the digital radiograph methods.
In conclusion, this laser diagnosis system is a useful method for dental caries diagnosis.
