Reliability of different methods for diagnosis of approximal carious lesions

The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnosis accuracy of approximal carries by visual, fiber optic transillumination(FOTI) and bitewing radiograph examination performed by two observers.A total of(372) unrestored posterior pertinent approximal surfaces of(186) patients were examined in Conservative Department during final clinical examination for under-graduate students, using the diagnostic methods under the study. The results were compared with the validation.The accuracy of each diagnostic method for identification of cavitated carious lesions was expressed by the terms: sensitivity, specificity and predictive values.The sensitivities for identification of cavitated lesions using visual examination about(0.28), for FOTI and radiography were(0.04) and(0.59) respectively. The specificity collectively was about(0.9).On the basis of these results, it was concluded that FOTI was the least reliable of the diagnostic methods tested. Also, it was found that visual examination should precede theradiographical examination for identification of cavitated carious lesions.