Background: Caries detection in school oral examinations insufficient accuracy.\nObjective: To evaluate advantages of introducing quantitative lightinduced\nfluorescence-digital (QLF-D) in school oral examinations. Methods:\nExperiment No. 1. Early demineralized lesions in the upper and lower incisors\nand canines were visually inspected by three dentists and by QLF-D. The\nnumbers of tooth planes with early demineralized lesions were compared\nbetween the methods. Experiment No. 2. Approximal demineralized lesions\nin molars were assessed by visual inspection, x-ray imaging, and QLF-D. The\nnumbers of tooth planes with demineralized lesions were compared among\nthe methods. Experiment No. 3. Plaque distribution was evaluated by QLF-D\nand a traditional staining method. The ratio of the diameter of plaque to\ntooth crown in the tooth axis direction in each method was calculated. The\nresults were evaluated by Pearsonâ??s correlation coefficient analysis and\nBland-Altman plot. Results: Experiment No. 1. The three dentists found 0.67\ntooth planes on average. QLF-D found 22 tooth planes with early demineralized\nlesions in the same samples. Experiment No. 2. Fourteen approximal\ntooth planes of molars were found to have demineralized lesions by x-ray\nimaging. QLF-D detected 71.4% of the tooth planes out of the 14, whereas\nvisual inspection found 7.1%. Experiment No. 3. The Pearsonâ??s correlation\ncoefficient for the evaluations of plaque distribution between the QLF-D and\ntraditional staining methods was 0.77 (P < 0.001). No statistically significant\nsystematic error was found through the Bland-Altman Plot analysis. Conclusion:\nThe results support introduction of QLF-D for use in school dental\nexaminations.
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