Comparison of digital panoramic and bite-wing radiography in proximal caries detection of molar teeth

Radiographs are essential tools for detection of caries. Panoramic, periapical and bite-wing radiographs are used alone or in various combinations to detect caries. With the introduction of digital radiography, it has been used extensively in panoramic radiography. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of digital panoramic and bite-wing radiography in the detection of proximal caries.
In this analytical study, panoramic and bite-wing radiographs of 50 patients were evaluated. The radiographs were evaluated for proximal enamel and outer third dentinal caries in molar areas by two observers. Intra- and inter-observer agreement was analyzed with Cronbach's Alpha and diagnostic accuracy was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic analysis (ROC) at a significance level of α = 0.05.
Intra- and inter-observer agreement levels were high. The mean values of area under curve (AUC) were 0.978 and 0.952 for panoramic and bite-wing radiography, respectively. There were no significant differences between AUCs of these two imaging modalities (p value = 0.001).
The accuracy of panoramic radiography in evaluation of proximal caries in molar areas was comparable to that of bite-wing radiography.