THE ACCURACY OF CONE BEAM COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN ASSESSMENT OF TOOTH AND ROOT LENGTH MEASUREMENTS: IN-VITRO STUDY

Abstract

Aim: Assessment of the accuracy of cone beam computed tomography in tooth and root length measurements. Methods: 50 human extracted teeth were used in the current study. The 50 premolars were divided into two groups: Group (1) consisted from 25 double rooted maxillary first premolars while Group (2) comprised 25 single rooted mandibular first premolars. Teeth and roots lengths were measured for each group with a manual caliper and from CBCT images. Physical and CBCT measurements were taken twice by two observers and the average values were used to avoid interobserver errors to compare between the manual caliper and the CBCT measurements and then the accuracy of CBCT was assessed. Results: Intraclass correlation between CBCT vs. Physical Measurements ranged from (-0.04 to -0.759) which indicates a complete disagreement between the physical measurements and CBCT measurements for all tested groups. Conclusion: Dental measurements taken on digital models are not as accurate as those taken manually. There is always underestimation of CBCT measurements compared to physical measurements.