Computer-aided interpretation and quantification of angular periodontal bone defects on dental radiographs

The evaluation of a computer-aided procedure for the interpretation and quantification of angular periodontal bone defects on dental radiographs is described. The computer-aided procedure was able to rank a series of artificial periodontal bone lesions as accurately as experienced clinicians. A comparison of data from clinical inspections of lesions during surgery with quantitative results of the digitized procedure shows that the latter produced reliable information on lesion size. Reproducibility is satisfactory. It is concluded that computer-aided detection and description of periodontal bone defects decreases the interobserver variability in general and the time-dependent variability in repeated assessments of a single observer.