Evaluation of the Root Canal Morphology of Human Teeth by Cone Beam Computed Tomography and Micro-Computed Tomographic – A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION: To thoroughly plan and execute any dental treatment, the anatomy of the dental root canals is of prime significance. Hence, in this systemic review, we intend to evaluate the cone beam computed and micro-computed tomographic presentations of the root canal morphologies of the secondary teeth. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted the search for the data from the online sources such as the “EMBASE,” “Pubmed,” “Scopus,” and other sources. Only human studies were collected. Terms searched were cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), micro-computed tomography, permanent teeth, and root canal morphology. The data extraction and meta-analysis were based on the PRISMA guidelines. RESULTS: A total of 170 studies were initially considered for the study. After the application of the inclusion and the exclusion criteria, only ten studies were qualified for the study. In 2 studies, the comparison was done between the conical beam and the microtomograhic views for assessing the root canal anatomies. There were, however, three studies that did not conclude any significant relation between the two imaging systems. When the risk of bias was calculated for the ten studies, there were only low and moderate for the ten included studies. The pooled prevalence among the genders were 21.4% (14.0%–24.6% confidence interval [CI] 95%) and 25.3% (20.0%–30.7% CI 95%), respectively, with high heterogeneity values (= 99.30% and 98.50%, respectively), but no statistical significance (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Both the imaging systems CBCT and the microtomography can be used with accuracy in the evaluation of the anatomic variations of the human root canal. However, a definition is dependent on the voxel size.