Comparison of Dental Explorers and CPI-probes in Diagnosing Dental Caries

The primary aim of the present study was to compare efficiency in detecting suspected caries requiring observation (CO) and decayed teeth (DT) between dental explorers and Community Periodontal Index (CPI)-probes in school dental examinations and evaluate the effect of their respective use on Decayed, Missing, Filled Teeth (DMFT) Index scores. A total of 126 elementary and high school students were examined. All the clinical findings were obtained by a pair of trained dentists examining each student at routine annual school dental examinations. A dental explorer or CPI-probe and dental mirror were used for the examination. One dentist used the dental explorer, while the other used the CPI-probe. The choice of which instrument to use by the first dentist to examine the student was made at random. A comparison of the explorers and CPI-probes revealed that the numbers of patients and permanent teeth classified as CO were greater with the former in 6th-grade elementary and high school students (p<0.05). The Kappa value for CO and DT was 0.560 for 6th-grade elementary school and 0.846 for high school students. All DMFT scores were higher with the explorers than with the CPI-probes in the 6th-grade elementary school students. No significant difference was observed between the explorers and CPI-probes in any of the DMFT scores in any group, however. The present results indicate that as long as the low rate of caries in Japanese school children is maintained, the epidemiological data on this disease should not show any significant change if a CPI-probe is used instead of an explorer in school dental examinations.