Evaluation of three methods in the diagnosis of dentin cracks caused by apical resection

To compare three various methods in the diagnosis of dentinal cracks formed in the apical third after root resection.

One hundred extracted human maxillary central incisors were selected. The root canals were prepared with step-back technique. Then 3mm from the apical end of all roots was cut perpendicular to the long axis of the tooth. The apical end of each root was evaluated to make sure there were no cracks. Fifty specimens were randomly chosen and connected to an apparatus especially designed for application of force (50-60N) by a universal testing machine for crack formation. The cracked (no=50) and non-cracked (no=50) specimens were examined by three methods of fiber optic transillumination, methylene blue staining and combination of the two. Sensitivity and specificity of the methods were evaluated. The most suitable method for detecting cracks was determined using Youden index. To compare agreement between studied methods with the gold standard, kappa statistics and odds ratio of McNemar were utilized.

The sensitivity of transillumination, staining and the combination method were 82.0, 50.0 and 90.0%, respectively. The staining technique had the lowest sensitivity and the highest specificity. Both transillumination and the combination method had Youden index of 0.56, but the combination method diagnosed truly cracked samples more than the other techniques.

The efficacy of transillumination in identification of apical root-end cracks undetectable by unaided vision was similar to the combination method. However, the efficacy of 2% methylene blue without transillumination was significantly lower than the other two methodologies.