Background: Detection of strip root canal perforation in obturated teeth depend mainly on radiographic methods. The Periapical radiographs (PR) provide valuable two-dimensional images, while the Cone-Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) imaging offers a three-dimensional visualization of the tooth and its surrounding structures. The voxel size used for CBCT acquisition has impact on the diagnostic accuracy of those images. This study aimed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of the digital PR and CBCT with 0.2 and 0.3 mm3 voxel sizes for the strip perforation detection in mandibular root.
Methods: For this investigation, 48 sound lower first molars were selected and divided into the following groups: (i) without obturation and without strip perforation, (ii) obturation and without strip perforation, (iii) without obturation and strip perforation, (iv) obturation and strip perforation. To obtain the requested radiographic images each tooth was placed in dehydrated human mandible. All images were evaluated by four observers, data was collected, and SPSS software program was used to analyse the data.
Results: In our study the area under the curves (AUC) values for the CBCT images were highly significance than the value for PR images, there was no significance difference between the two CBCT voxel sizes images for perforation detection in obturated teeth.
Conclusions: Compared to PR, A significantly higher accuracy for detection of strip root canal perforation was associated to the CBCT images. For non-obturated teeth the 0.2 mm3 CBCT voxel sizes has a higher significant difference than 0.3 mm3 CBCT voxel sizes.