Acurácia da detecção e quantificação de placa dentária em fotografias intrabucais

Abstract

The process of dental plaque detection and quantification is important to guide the patient and dentist in the diagnosis and dental treatment plan, plaque control, as well as for epidemiological studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the detection and quantification of dental plaque in permanent teeth by human vision, analyzing intraoral photographs. A diagnostic study was conducted, with a sample composed of images of 30 volunteers selected among the patients from a dental clinic in the city of Salvador. Intraoral photographs before and after dental plaque evidencing through dyes agents (gold standard) were analyzed for the presence and quantity of dental plaque. Two dentist examiners evaluated the photographs without disclosing, and one of them also evaluated the disclosing photographs. Examiner 1 analyzed 638 dental surfaces and examiner 2, 336 dental surfaces. The ROC curve, F1 score and the intra- and inter-examiner agreement of five dental plaque indices were calculated. The highest intra-examiner agreement was found for the dental plaque percentage, with an ICC of 0.934 and the lowest was for the navy plaque index with a weighted kappa of 0.602. The highest inter-examiner agreement found was for the percentage of dental plaque with an ICC of 0.883 and the lowest was for dental plaque detection with a kappa of 0.058. The area under the ROC curve and F1 score found for the dental plaque detection of the first examiner were 0.751 and 0.880, respectively, and for the second examiner they were 0.568 and 0.893, respectively. The area under the ROC curve and F1 score found for the dental plaque quantification of the first examiner were 0.763 and 0.709, respectively, and for the second examiner they were 0.828 and 0.800, respectively. Thus, it is possible to conclude that visual detection and, mainly, the quantification of dental plaque in photographs of permanent teeth without disclosing is a sufficiently accurate method, which may mean more savings, simplicity and less time in dental treatments.