RADIOGRAPHIC EVALUATION OF OCCLUSAL CARIES - EFFECT OF TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE

The purpose of this study was to investigate what effect differing lev els of didactic education and clinical experience have on the ability to diagnose occlusal caries from radiographs. Freshman and senior dent al students and dental school faculty were asked to evaluate bitewing radiographs for the presence of occlusal caries and for a recommendati on for restorative treatment. The agreement between histologic and rad iographic diagnosis was assessed by calculating sensitivity, specifici ty, accuracy, and interexaminer agreement. It was concluded that denta l students and faculty did differ in their abilities to evaluate radio graphs for occlusal caries, and that education and clinical experience especially affected interexaminer agreement.