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Updated: May 25, 2026

Semi-Automated Planimetric Quantification of Dental Plaque Using an Intraoral Fluorescence Camera
Published on: January 27, 2023
Validity of caries-detection methods under epidemiological setting
Renato Pereira da Silva1, Andréa Videira Assaf, Stela Márcia Pereira
1Department of Community Dentistry, Piracicaba Dental School - University of Campinas-UNICAMP, Av. Limeira 901, P.O. Box 52, CEP 13414-903, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
Purpose:
To evaluate the validity of the visual exam and adjunct diagnostic technologies for posterior permanent teeth under epidemiological conditions.
Methods:
A probabilistic sample of 165 12-year-old schoolchildren from Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil, was examined by visual exam (VI1), visual exam + artificial lighting (VI2), bitewing (BW), fiber optic transillumination (FOTI), DIAGNOdent and the associations among them. The D1+D3 and D3 diagnostics criteria, under epidemiological conditions, were adopted. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were calculated to determine the validity of the exams.
Results:
The most accurate diagnostic method was VI2+BW exam for all dental surfaces under both diagnostic criteria. It was concluded that the BW was the best adjunct diagnostic technology on epidemiological dental caries surveys, increasing the validity of the dental exams.
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