[The diagnosis of approximal caries--a comparison of clinical, fiber optic and x-ray diagnostic procedures (the diagnosis of approximal caries)]

Abstract

A comparison of the efficiency of fibre-optic transillumination with clinical and radiographic diagnosis of proximal caries in posterior teeth was carried out on 186 subjects aged 12 to 17 years. The proportion of diagnosed proximal lesions detected by fibre-optic transillumination was two times more often than by clinical examination while the increase in lesion detection by bitewing radiography was more than threefold. Taking radiographic diagnosis as the validating criteria, the sensitivity of clinical examination was 0.30 and of fibre-optic transillumination 0.68 resp. The specificity was 0.99 for both examinations. In patients with low prevalence of proximal caries and good preventive dental care fibre-optic transillumination should be used as an additional method before using of regular radiographic diagnosing of proximal caries.