Occlusal caries detection with KaVo DIAGNOdent and radiography: An in vitro comparison

A new laser fluorescence method, KaVo DIAGNOdent, was tested with respect t o reproducibility and validity and compared with radiography regarding accu racy in the detection of occlusal caries. Seventy-six extracted premolar an d molar teeth were measured twice with DIAGNOdent under both wet and dry co nditions, at an interval of 2 weeks. Conventional film radiographs were exp osed. Microradiographic analysis of sections of the teeth served as the gol d standard. Intra-class correlation coefficient and Pearson's correlation c oefficient were used to assess the reproducibility and the validity of the method, respectively. The influence of time and varying humidities on DIAGN Odent readings were analysed by two-way repeated measure ANOVA. ROC curves were plotted for DIAGNOdent readings and radiographic registration of carie s by 6 observers, and the areas under the curves were compared using Studen t's t test. Under both wet and dry conditions, the reproducibility of the D IAGNOdent method was excellent: R = 0.97 and 0.96, respectively. The diagno stic accuracy of DIAGNOdent was significantly better than that of radiograp hy (p less than or equal to 0.001). In this in vitro study of detection of occlusal caries, the diagnostic performance of the DIAGNOdent method was su perior to that of radiography. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.