An In Vivo Comparison of Two Diagnostic Methods in Secondary Caries Detection

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare the level of agreement between four operators with different levels of experience for two methods of detecting secondary enamel and dentin carious lesions in composite restored teeth. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty teeth of 40 patients with with secondary carious lesions in the composite resin were selected. The teeth were examined by two methods; visual inspection and a laser fluorescence device (DIAGNO dent pen 2190) by four operators including an undergraduate student, a dentist with 5 years of clinical experience, a general dentist with 12 years of clinical experience and an oral and maxillofacial radiologist. Cohen's kappa statistic was applied in order to assess the agreement between the diagnoses performed by the four operators with each diagnostic method. RESULTS: The diagnosis performed by different operators achieved an excellent agreement with high ICC. CONCLUSION: DIAGNOdent can be a useful device for secondary caries detection in posterior teeth as an adjunct to visual examination.