Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in the diagnosis of fenestrations defects with different voxel sizes.
Material and Methods: 128 Defects were created in eight dry skulls with a diameter of one, two, three and four millimeters on the buccal aspect, respectively in each quadrant. Measurements were obtained using a digital caliper. These were considered to be the gold standard. The skulls were scanned by CBCT (NewTom- Giano) at two settings: (a) Voxel size 0.3 mm Standard Resolution (SR) (b) voxel size 0.125 mm High Resolution (HR). The accuracy of the CBCT measurements was determined by comparing the mean of all radiographic measurements, using SAS software version 9.4 for data analysis with those of direct measurements and Duncan's Multiple Range Test.
Results: Statistical analysis for both SR and HR with the gold standard measurements for each defect on the skulls revealed statistically significant correlation between the radiographic measurements and real measurements (P ≤ 0.05) indicating accuracy, also no statistically significant difference was found within the measurements accuracy of each group (P > 0.05) with the different defects sizes. Duncan's multiple range test revealed that the HR voxel size 0.125 mm is of slightly higher accuracy.
Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, CBCT (NewTom- Giano) has demonstrated high accuracy and reliability, in measuring different fenestration sizes with different resolution (HR 0.0125 mm and SR 0.300 mm voxels). Measurements were with same accuracy despite the slightly higher performance of HR (0.125 mm voxel)