Comparison of fibre optic transillumination with clinical and radiographic caries diagnosis

Abstract

Abstract Fibre optic transillumination (FOTI) has been employed during the course of a 3‐yr clinical dentifrice trial which initially involved 3003 children. At the initial examination, a subgroup of 813 13‐yr‐olds, and at the following annual visit, 2247 14‐yr‐olds, were examined using a 150 W lamp and 0.5 mm diameter probe. Routine clinical and radiographic examinations were performed separately. Compared to the clinical scores for anterior teeth, FOTI detected an additional 64% of interproximal lesions at the first visit while, for the larger number of children at the second visit, the increase in lesion detection level using FOTI was 37%. For the posterior teeth the comparable figure at the second examination was 92%. When FOTI data were compared to radiographic data for more than 52 000 posterior interproximal surfaces, FOTI could only detect 17% of radiographic Grade 2 lesions and 48% Grade 3 lesions. Thus any assumption that FOTI diagnoses may be a substitute for bitewing radiography appears premature.