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Published on: February 23, 2024
Accuracy of detecting and measuring buccal bone thickness adjacent to titanium dental implants-a cone beam computed
Gabriela Salatino Liedke1, Rubens Spin-Neto2, Heloisa Emilia Dias da Silveira3
1Adjunct Professor, Oral Radiology, Department of Stomatology, School of Dentistry, Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Santa Maria, Brazil.
Objectives:
The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of detecting and measuring buccal bone thickness (BBT) adjacent to titanium implants in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images.
Study Design:
Titanium implants (1, 2, or 3), abutments, and metal-ceramic crowns were inserted into 40 bone blocks with various BBTs. CBCT images were acquired in various settings: Voxel sizes (0.2 and 0.13 mm) and reconstruction section thicknesses (2.0 and 5.0 mm) were assessed by 3 examiners. True BBT was measured in digital photographs of the bone blocks. Buccal bone detection was evaluated by sensitivity and specificity. BBT was evaluated by 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) between the true and the CBCT measurements and by calculating the difference between the true measurement and the CBCT measurement (Di-BBT).
Results:
Detection of buccal bone exhibited high sensitivity (0.86-1) and low specificity (0.14-1). More implants in the field of view, large voxel size, and thick image reconstruction sections had a negative impact on buccal bone detection. ANOVA showed statistically significantly larger BBT for the CBCT measurements in all settings (1.07-1.21 mm) compared with the true measurements (0.85 mm). Di-BBT was mostly within 0.5 mm.
Conclusions:
BBT adjacent to titanium implants is overestimated when evaluated on CBCT cross-sectional images.
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