The Accuracy of CBCT in the Detection of Dens Invaginatus in a Tunisian Population

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence and characteristics and to classify the type of dens invaginatus (DI), in anterior teeth, basing on 200 Tunisian patients' cone-beam computed tomography. Material and Methods. A retrospective study was performed using CBCT images of 200 Tunisian patients. Maxillary and mandibular anterior teeth were evaluated for the presence and characteristics of dens invaginatus. Results were reported as frequencies, means ± SD. Statistical evaluation of the presence of DI related to gender was performed by the Pearson chi-square test. RESULTS: Dens invaginatus was observed in 42 out of 4945 examined teeth, with a prevalence of 0.85%.The anomaly affected especially maxillary lateral incisors (p ≤ 0.001). DI location was unilateral in 36% and bilateral in 64%. Type II DI was the most commonly observed (47.61%), followed by type I (30.95%) and type III (21.42%). Apical periodontitis (AP) was mostly seen in type III DI, with a periapical index (PAI) varying from 3″ to 5 E″.The maxillary lateral incisors seem to be the most affected anterior teeth. The symmetric occurrence of DI was observed with a statistically significant difference (p ≤ 0.001). CONCLUSION: Within the limits related to the present study, DI detected by CBCT is a rare anomaly that could be associated with AP. Maxillary anterior teeth should be bilaterally examined for DI in the absence of clinical symptoms.