• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.40-44
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• 2000

The purpose of study was to measure the interrater reliability of the newly developed caries diagnostic instrument, Diagnodent(KaVo, Germany), using a new laser fluorescence techinique. One hundred and three extracted human premolars and molars were examined by Diagnodent, three times for fissures and five times for smooth surfaces. There was no significant difference among the three fissure means, but two combinations showed significant differences among the five smooth surface means. Correlation coefficients of Pearson and Spearman were all above 0.9(P<0.01). The $\alpha$ values from reliability analysis were 0.9980 or 0.9981 for fissures and 0.9992 for smooth surfaces.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.24-31
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• 2000

The purpose of study was to compare the laser fluorescence detection by Diagnodent(KaVo, Germany), visual inspection using dental explorers, and conventional dental radiography as diagnostic tests for dental caries. One hundred and three human premolars and molars which had no caries or fissure caries were tested by the three methods. Diagnodent scores increased as the scores of the other two tests increased(P<0.01) There were significant relationships between visual inspection scores and Diagnodent scores(Pearson 0.676, Spearman 0.694) and between radiography scores and Diagnodent scores(Pearson 0.623, Spearman 0.658) (P<0.01, all). Diagnodent test proved to have high sensitivity and low specificity and more studies are necessary to present the diagnostic criteria for progressive caries stages.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.668-672
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• 2001

The purpose of study was to measure the interrater reliability of the caries diagnostic instrument, Diagnodent(KaVo, Germany), using a new laser fluorescence technique. Occlusal surfaces and smooth surfaces of one hundred extracted human premolars and molars were examined by four dentists. Pearson correlation coeffcients were 0703 to 0.870 for occlusal surfaces and 0.764 to 0.932 for smooth surfaces (P<0.01, all). Reliability coefficients which were calculated by intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.9450 for occlusal surfaces and 0.9605 for smooth surfaces. Therefore, the interrater reliability of caries diagnosis by Diagnodent is very high, and the rater training would be necessary more for occlusal surfaces than for smooth surfaces.