Diagnosis in vivo of Occlusal Dental Caries Lesions with Diode Laser

Abstract

Objective: This study evaluated the efficiency of Laser diode (DiagnodentTM 2095, Kavo/Germany) in occlusal caries diagnosis, in comparison with the visual method. Method: The sample was composed by 39 permanent tooth (18 molars and 21 premolars), which presented visible macrocospic alteration that could indicate initial caries lesions, in a total of 60 sites. Evaluations (visual and laser) were conducted by two examiners. Visual diagnose was done with the aid of a buccal mirror and artificial light, without a dental explorer. For diagnosis using Diagnodent, each site had 3 measurements, obtaing an average. The sites classified as sound had been excluded, and the sites classified as injured had been selected to evidence the diagnosis methods, through invasive handling. After that, it was verified the real situation of the injured tissue through visual inspection for both examiners. Intra-examiner and inter-examiner repeatability were calculated for each diagnostic system using the kappa statistic method. The accord index between the examiners was k = 0.82 for visual method and k = 0.93 for diagnosis with Diagnodent. The correspondence between the two methods of diagnosis was k = 0.70 for examiner 1 and 0.77 for examiner 2. Sensitivity and specificity values were calculated on the basis of obtained data after invasive handling. Results: For the visual method, the specificity was 59.5% and the sensibility was 88.9%, while for the Diagnodent method was 69.1% and 100%, respectively. Conclusion: The diagnosis using Diagnodent is effective in incipient occlusal caries identification when compared with the visual method, and may be used as a complementary examination.

Keywords

• Diagnosis
• Dental caries
• Lasers