Comparative evaluation of the precision of cone-beam computed tomography and surgical intervention in the determination of periodontal bone defects: A clinicoradiographic study

CONTEXT: Major limitations of conventional radiography are overlapping and lack of 3D information. Surgical exposure, though being able to provide accurate information, provides very little time to plan-out the type of periodontal regeneration required during surgery. Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) has emerged as a feasible tool and found to be accurate. Unfortunately, in-vivo studies are still scarce. AIM: Aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy of CBCT in the detection of periodontal bony defects while determining its quantitative precision in the measurement of alveolar bone height as against the open flap debridement (OFD) procedure which is set as the gold standard. SETTING AND DESIGN: Present study is a cross-sectional study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study includes patients with Chronic Periodontitis indicated for periodontal surgeries. Bone defects were measured with the help of CBCT and with William's periodontal probe during surgical intervention and compared. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Measurements were compared with Student's t-test; unpaired t-test & correlation were tested with Pearson's correlation coefficient test. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The mean CBCT & surgical value of palatal/lingual & distal sites of anterior teeth showed statistically significant difference (P = 0.001). All the values for posterior teeth were statistically non-significant. CONCLUSION: Statistically CBCT & clinical measurement with OFD have similar potential of accuracy to access the bony topography but CBCT provides good accessibility to visualize the sites which are difficult to access during surgical interventions like palatal sites & the distal sites of the posterior teeth.