The Efficacy of Application of Pseudocolor Software in Digital Radiography for Detection of Interproximal Caries

Abstract

Statement of Problem: Bitewing radiography is a suitable clinical technique for the diagnosis of interproximal caries. Many researches performed in this field have shown that direct digital radiography and conventional radiography films in dentistry are similar in detecting inter-proximal caries.Purpose: To compare the effects of image processing mode of colorize on the efficacy of the detection of interproximal carious lesions viewed in direct digital radiography.Methods and Material: A total of 102 proximal surfaces of the extracted human premolar teeth on direct digital images with and without application of pseudocolor filter were evaluated by three observers. The teeth were sectioned and viewed microscopically to determine the gold standard. The kappa value agreement ratio was calculated.Results: Sensitivity and specificity values in normal digital images were found to be 66.7% and 60% and for colorized images 80.5% and 50%, respectively. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the two types of images (p = 0.12).Conclusion: In this study, application of pseudocolor software failed to result in statistically significant differences between normal and colorized digital images.Key word: Pseudocolor, Radiography dental digital, Dental caries