Current status of dental caries diagnosis using cone beam computed tomography

PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to review the current status of dental caries diagnosis using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: An online PubMed search was performed to identify studies on caries research using CBCT. RESULTS: Despite its usefulness, there were inherent limitations in the detection of caries lesions through conventional radiograph mainly due to the two-dimensional (2D) representation of caries lesions. Several efforts were made to investigate the three-dimensional (3D) image of lesion, only to gain little popularity. Recently, CBCT was introduced and has been used for diagnosis of caries in several reports. Some of them maintained the superiority of CBCT systems, however it is still under controversies. CONCLUSION: The CBCT systems are promising, however they should not be considered as a primary choice of caries diagnosis in everyday practice yet. Further studies under more standardized condition should be performed in the near future.