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.