Sensitivity and Specificity of Cone Beam Computed Tomography and Digital Periapical Radiography in Detecting Artificial Buccal Recurrent Caries

Recurrent or secondary caries develops at the margin of restorations and causes restorative failure. This study was conducted to compare the performance of Phosphor Storage Plate (PSP) and Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) scan in detecting artificial buccal recurrent caries. Materials and Methods: Class V cavities were prepared on the buccal surface of 42 extracted human premolars and molars selected by simple sampling method. The inclusion criterion was the intact crown, and the exclusion criteria were previous restorations and significant caries. Twentyone teeth were filled with amalgam, and the other 21 teeth were filled with composite resin. Artificial buccal recurrent caries was simulated on eleven amalgams and ten composite restored teeth. The teeth were randomly mounted on acrylic resin arches. CBCT and intraoral parallel periapical radiographs (with PSP) were taken to detect recurrent caries under restorations. Kappa coefficients were computed to evaluate the inter-observer agreement of the images taken by CBCT and PSP systems, and the sensitivity and specificity of CBCT and PSP were calculated Results: The sensitivity of amalgam and composite resin restorations in the tangential and crosssectional plane were 18.2, 81.8, and 50, 100, respectively. The sensitivity of amalgam and composite resin restorations evaluated by PSP were 63.64 and 100, respectively. The specificity of amalgam and composite resin restorations in the tangential and cross-sectional plane were 90, 100 and 100, 100, respectively. The specificity of amalgam and composite resin restorations evaluated by PSP were 100 and 90.91, respectively. Conclusion: Considering the limitations of the study, the sensitivity of CBCT in different planes was higher than that of PSP, and the cross-sectional plane had more sensitivity than a tangential plane in the detection of recurrent caries. It is suggested that the teeth with true caries be used instead of artificial buccal caries to compare PSP and CBCT.