Evaluation of digital and conventional radiography in comparisonwithhistologic methods for measuring root canal length

Abstract

Working length determination is a critical step in root canal therapy. Different methods have been introduced for this purpose. Recently, the digital radiography has been introduced for this purpose because of its advantages over conventional one. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of digital and conventional radiography in endodontic working length determination. Materials & Methods: One hundred and thirty four single-rooted human teeth with obturated root canals were selected for this study. The teeth were randomly divided into two groups. The working length determination in group 1 and 2 was carried out using digital and conventional radiography, respectively. The distance between apical limit of root canal obturation and radiographic apex was evaluated by measuring tool of the digital radiography system and gage measuring tool, manually. Then a histological section was prepared on each teeth and the real distance between anatomic apex and the end of obturtion was evaluated by measuring tool of stereomicroscope. The accuracy of each methods was evaluated by measuring AUC(area under curve). Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS20. The significance level was set at 0.05. Results. The area under ROC curve of digital radiography was( 0.87) which is more than that of conventional radiography (0.81).Therefore digital radiography has higher sensitivity and specificity value than conventional radiography . Conclusions: Based on the findings of this study, the accuracy of digital radiography in working length determination is more than the accuracy of conventional radiography