Dental caries : an evaluation of conventional and digital radiography for detecting dental caries.

Abstract

Dental caries is one of the commonest diseases, which affects most frequently children and young adults. In fact it is the most important cause of tooth loss in younger people. Consequently early detection of dental caries is essential so that to reduce damage to a minimum. Radiography is the technique of choice for early detection of dental caries as it may detect them, even when they are still not clinically apparent. The objective of this study was, to evaluate the radiographic techniques (i.e. conventional and digital systems) available to detect dental caries. Through the literature search, it was found that in general both conventional and digital systems are able to detect dental caries. Also it was pointed out that in terms of spatial resolution conventional radiography is still superior whilst in terms of other factors such as radiation dose and user-friendliness digital systems are by far much superior.