The Effect of Cone Beam CT Voxel Size on the Identification of Vertical and Horizontal Root Fractures: An In-vitro Study

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between cone beam CT (CBCT) voxel size and tooth root fracture detection. Materials and Methods: Vertical and horizontal root fractures were induced in a total of 30 teeth, and 15 teeth were left intact. Teeth were imaged with pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Amintavakoli, Niloufar
Other Authors: Lam, Ernest W.
Language:en_ca
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1807/42669
Description
Summary:Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between cone beam CT (CBCT) voxel size and tooth root fracture detection. Materials and Methods: Vertical and horizontal root fractures were induced in a total of 30 teeth, and 15 teeth were left intact. Teeth were imaged with projection digital radiography and the Kodak 9000 3D CBCT system with a native voxel size of 76 μm. The CBCT voxels were then downsampled to 100 μm, 200 μm and 300 μm. Five blinded observers evaluated both sets of images with a 1 week washout interval between each set of observations. Results: CBCT outperformed the projection images for fracture detection for all voxel sizes except 300 μm (p<0.05). No significant differences were found between the different voxel sizes (p>0.05). Conclusion: Although voxel size does not impact the interpretation of root fractures, in vitro, CBCT outperformed projection imaging for voxel sizes less than 300 μm.