Diagnosing the severity of buccal caries lesions in orthodontic patients at de-bonding using digital photographs

Abstract

Objective. The aims of this study were (1) to evaluate the severity of buccal caries lesions according to the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) criteria via scoring buccal caries lesions on digital photographs at the time of de-bonding and (2) to compare this method with clinical examination. Materials and methods. In total, 89 patients treated with upper and lower fixed appliances were clinically examined immediately after de-bonding by the first author and buccal caries were scored according to the ICDAS-II. Close-up digital photographs were taken of 245 teeth with different buccal caries lesion scores according to the ICDAS-II. Thirteen postgraduate orthodontics students independently scored the buccal caries lesions in the digital photographs using the modified clinical criteria (ICDAS-II). Intra- and inter-examiner reliabilities were evaluated by calculating the weighted kappa. To evaluate the validity of diagnosing the severity of buccal caries lesions using digital photographs compared to clinical examination, Spearman's correlation coefficient was calculated. Results. Intra-examiner reliability and the reliability between each examiner and the clinical examination showed moderate-to-excellent agreement, with kappa values of 0.52–0.83. Scoring buccal caries lesions via clinical examinations and scoring via photographs were well correlated according to the modified ICDAS-II criteria (Spearman's correlation coefficient, 0.76). Conclusions. Thus, scoring buccal caries lesions on digital photographs according to ICDAS-II criteria is a reliable and valid method for assessing the severity of buccal caries lesions.

Key Words::

• de-bonding
• human
• ICDAS
• reliability
• white spot lesions

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their thanks to Dr Tommy Johnsson for his statistical assistance. This study was a part of project supported by a scholarship from the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.