Active methodologies in teaching radiographic diagnosis of proximal caries

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the dental student in the diagnosis of proximal caries. Sixty-eight students of Dentistry underwent the stages of theoretical and practical training for the radiographic diagnosis of caries. The sample consisted of conventional and digitized radiographic examinations of 40 human teeth, 20 premolars and 20 molars with untreated clinical alterations on one of the proximal surfaces. To evaluate the similarity between the references of the radiographic diagnosis scores of the caries and the histological evaluation, the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient was used, which measured the assertiveness between the students' scores and the true diagnosis, which was classified in levels of reproducibility. In the evaluation of reproducibility using the intraclass correlation coefficient, the values obtained for the digitized images of the premolar teeth were considered satisfactory, where the students of the seventh semester more approached the correct diagnosis. It was concluded that the seventh semester students had better performance in the radiographic diagnosis of proximal caries.

Keywords: Dental Caries. Diagnostic Imaging. Teaching. Education. Dental.