Reliability and Reproducibility of the International Caries Detection and Assessment System Index in Evaluation of Dental Decay in People Aged 25-40 Years

The most commonly used scale to detect dental caries is the Decay-Missing- Filled (DMF) index. Since the DMF index cannot identify early carious lesions, the new International Caries Diagnosis and Assessment System (ICDAS) was developed. Since the ICDAS index is not included in the dental education courses in Iran, the present study aimed to assess the reliability and reproducibility of the this index after adequate training. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 30 employees in one of the hospitals in Shiraz, Iran, were selected using the convenience sampling method as research subjects, and were examined by two examiners calibrated for DMF index and two examiners calibrated for ICDAS. The agreement between two examiners in each system was investigated using the Kappa coefficient of agreement. One of the DMF examiners and one of the ICDAS examiners examined the sample two weeks later again. The internal agreement of these examiners with their primary examinations was evaluated using the Kappa coefficient. Results: the ICDAS index, the intra-examiner and the inter-examiner Kappa coefficients were 0.915 and 0.874, and for the DMF index, these indices were 0.903 and 0.833, respectively. These findings indicate almost a complete agreement between the examiners. Conclusion: Both indices had good reliability and reproducibility. The ICDAS index was useful and applicable for dentists and dental students for diagnosing non-cavitated caries lesions, Therefore, integrating this index in the dental educational courses of Iranian students following further studies seems to be useful in moving toward minimal intervention dentistry.