DIAGNOSTIC ABILITY OF THE PERIAPICAL RADIOGRAPHS AND DIGITAL IMAGE IN THE DETECTION OF THE ARTIFICIAL PROXIMAL CARIES

인공적 인접면 치아우식증의 구내방사선사진과 디지털 영상의 진단능 평가

Recently, the digital image was introduced into radiological image. The digital image has the power of contrast enhancement, histogram control, and other digitally enhancement. At the point of the resolution, periapical radiograph is superior to the digital image, but enhanced digital procedure improves the diagnostic ability of the digital image. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic ability of artificial proximal caries in conventional radiographs, digital radiographs and enhanced digital radiographs (histogram specification). ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) analysis and paired t-test were used for the evaluation of detectability, and following results were acquired: 1. The mean ROC area of conventional radiographs was 0.9274. 2. The mean ROC area of unenhanced digital image was 0.9168. 3. The mean ROC area of enhanced digital image was 0.9339. 4. The diagnostic ability of three imaging methods was not significant difference(p>0.05). So, the digital images had similar diagnostic ability of artificial proximal caries to conventional radiographs. If properly enhanced digital image, it may be superior to conventional radiographs.