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Published on: July 21, 2014
Reliability of marginal microleakage assessment by visual and digital methods
Fábio Augusto de Santi Alvarenga1, Camila Pinelli2, Leonor de Castro Monteiro Loffredo2
1Department of Restorative Dentistry, Araraquara School of Dentistry, UNESP - Univ Estadual Paulista, Araraquara, São Paulo, Brazil.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability of visual and digital methods to assess marginal microleakage in vitro.
Materials And Methods:
Typical Class V preparations were made in bovine teeth and filled with composite resin. After dye penetration (0.5% basic fuchsin), teeth were sectioned and the 53 obtained fragments were assessed according to visual (stereomicroscope) and digital methods (Image Tool Software(®)-ITS) (University of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio Dental School, USA). Two calibrated examiners (A and B) evaluated dye penetration, by means of a stereomicroscope with ×20 magnification (scores), and by the ITS (millimeters). The intra- and inter-examiner agreement was estimated according to Kappa statistics (κ), and intraclass correlation coefficient (ρ).
Results:
In relation to the visual method, the intra-examiner agreement was almost perfect (κA = 0.87) and substantial (κB = 0.76), respectively to the examiner A and B. The inter-examiner agreement showed an almost perfect reliability (κ = 0.84). For the digital method, the intra-examiner agreement was almost perfect for both examiners and equal to ρ = 0.99, and so was the inter-examiner agreement value.
Conclusion:
Visual (stereomicroscope) and digital methods (ITS) showed high levels of intra- and inter-examiner reproducibility when marginal microleakage was assessed.
