Accuracy and reliability of the expected root position setup to evaluate root proximity of an edentulous site

It is important to achieve proper root position during orthodontic treatment involving future dental implant placement. However, current methods to evaluate root position are either inaccurate or expose patients to relatively high radiation levels. A new approach using an expected root position (ERP) setup has previously demonstrated the potential to accurately monitor root position with minimal radiation. This study aimed to evaluate whether the ERP setup is an accurate and reliable method to determine if the roots adjacent to an edentulous site are appropriate for the anticipated dental implant.

In this retrospective study, the ERP setup was generated for 22 edentulous sites selected from the University of California San Francisco Division of Orthodontics patient database. The mesiodistal angulation of all teeth adjacent to the edentulous sites and the mesiodistal space between the teeth were measured in the ERP setup and compared with the posttreatment cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan, which served as the control. The intraoperator and interoperator reliability and agreement between the ERP setup and the posttreatment CBCT scan were assessed using Bland-Altman analysis. The correlation between measurements was further evaluated by the Pearson correlation coefficient.

The Bland-Altman plots and the Pearson correlation coefficient displayed strong agreement between the ERP setup and the posttreatment CBCT scan, with only 11.4% mesiodistal angulation measurements beyond the clinically acceptable range of ± 2.5°. All mesiodistal angulations and distances were strongly correlated with high intraoperator and interoperator reliabilities.

The method to generate an ERP set up to evaluate the mesiodistal angulation and space of an edentulous site prepared for a future dental implant has been demonstrated to be accurate and reliable.