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In vitro validation of carious dentin removed using different excavation criteria.
Avijit Banerjee1, Edwina A M Kidd, Timothy F Watson
1Department of Conservative Dentistry, Guy's, King's & Thomas' Dental Institute, KCL, London, UK. avijit.banerjee@kcl.ac.uk
American Journal of Dentistry
|October 29, 2003
Summary
Clinical hardness is a more accurate measure for cavity preparation than caries detector dye. Caries dyes can lead to significant over-preparation, potentially harming tooth structure.
Area of Science:
- Dentistry
- Caries Management
- Dental Histology
Background:
- Accurate caries removal is crucial for conservative cavity preparation.
- Clinical hardness and caries detector dyes are common methods for assessing caries removal.
- Histological validation provides a precise measure of tissue removal.
Purpose of the Study:
- To directly compare cavity preparation extent using clinical hardness versus caries detector dye.
- To histologically validate caries removal against carious dentin autofluorescence.
Main Methods:
- 50 human molars with occlusal lesions were analyzed.
- Confocal laser scanning microscopy captured autofluorescent signatures of carious dentin.
- Excavation was performed using clinical hardness and then caries detector dye, with imaging at each stage.
Main Results:
- Cavity preparation based on clinical hardness closely matched lesion autofluorescence.
- Caries detector dye resulted in up to 58.2% over-preparation compared to autofluorescence.
- Significant discrepancies were observed between the two excavation methods.
Conclusions:
- Clinical hardness is a more accurate indicator for complete caries removal than caries detector dye.
- Caries detector dyes can lead to clinically significant over-preparation of cavities.
- Histological validation using autofluorescence offers a reliable method for assessing excavation accuracy.