Journal of Dental Medicine

Statement of Problem: One of the dental lesions which is mainly diagnosed by periapical radiography is apical root resorption Diagnosis of the presence and extension of this lesion can put some effects on its treatment plan and prognosis.

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of periapical radiography on apical root resorption diagnosis. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, sixty extracted teeth were examined radiographic and histological regarding the presence and extension of apical root resorption. It should be noted that periapical radiographs were taken before extraction of all mentioned teeth. The results were analyzed by Fisher’s exact test.

Results: The results of this study showed significant differences between radiological and histological examinations (P=0.0003). Significant correlation between these two observations was seen only in 53.33% of cases comprising 23% of teeth with root resouption. Non-correlation was found in 46% of samples. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of apical root resorption between maxillary and mandibular teeth (P=0.233). Sensitivity of periapical radiographs in apical root resorption diagnosis was determined 57.3%. Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study, it seems that periapical radiography technique does not possess desirable efficacy in diagnosis of apical root resorption and its limitation should be considered by clinicians.

Background and Aim: Although the need for "adequate" amount of keratinized tissue (KT) for periodontal health is questionable, the mucogingival junction (MGJ) often serves as a measurement landmark in periodontal evaluations. Limited information is available on the reproducibility of KT width (KTW) assessment. The purpose of this study was to assess reproducibility of 3 different methods to identify MGJ location.

Materials and Methods: In this test evaluation study, fourteen patients contributed with 40 teeth. At the midbuccal aspect of each tooth, KTW was assessed by 2 independent examiners after MGJ identification by the visual (VM), functional (FM), and visual with histochemical staining (HM) method. Data analysis was based on intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) and paired t test.

Results: The results of this study exhibits no significant differences in keratinized tissue width assessment in visual and histochemical methods , but a significant difference in functional method is found. Intra- and inter-examiner reproducibility has been shown to be substantially consistent when different methods of mucogingival junction determination are used to measure in order to determining corono apical dimension of the gingival.

Conclusion: Finally the results of this study indicate that all three methods for detecting MGJ location are accurate and reproducible, but if we need more accuracy and reproducibility, the histochemical method is recommended.