Creating Digital Dental Plaque Scoring

Overview

It is aimed to compare dental plaque area measured on images obtained in the clinic by using dental photography and intraoral scanner and to evaluate the correlation of this area with clinical plaque scores. Clinical dental plaque scoring was measured according to the "Turesky Modified Quigley Hein Plaque Index" after applying a plaque staining agent (Tri Plaque ID Gel, GC Corp., Tokyo, Japan) to evaluate the oral hygiene of 20 patients who applied to the university clinic. Following clinical scoring, intraoral photographs of the patients were taken using dental photography equipment of the same standards (EOS700D, Canon; 100mm lens, Canon; twin flash, Yong Nuo) and scan images were taken with an intraoral scanner (iTero Element Flex, Align Tech., USA). In the data obtained, dental plaque area on the buccal surface of 66 lower and upper jaw anterior teeth were measured with Image J (National Institute for Health, Bethesda, USA) software, and the ratio of dental plaque area to the visible surface area of the tooth was measured.

The (h1) hypothesis of this study was that dental plaque scores measured through digital camera and intraoral scanner images can replace clinical visual scoring. This study aimed to compare dental plaque areas measured on images taken by digital camera and intraoral scanner and to evaluate these areas with clinical plaque scores with the help of a software program and provide a novel plaque index to score dental plaque on the taken intraoral images. Study Design The tooth arches of the volunteers were stained with a plaque-disclosing solution (Tri Plaque ID Gel, GC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan). The Turesky Modified Quigley Hein Plaque Index (TMQHPI) of anterior teeth of the volunteers' was recorded using clinical visual examination. Intraoral photographs of the volunteers were taken by using a digital camera (Canon EOS 700D; 100 mm macrolens, Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan), and 3D images were recorded by an intraoral scanner (iTero Element Flex, Align Technologies, San Jose, California, USA). Photograph and intraoral scanner images were overlapped and pixel-synchronized using the Keynote program. After synchronization, all taken images were transferred to the Image J V1.53 (National Institute for Health, Bethesda, USA) program. The plaque-covered area and the total surface area of the teeth were marked in the manual mode of the program and the areas were measured in square pixels. Measurements were made on a total of 66 teeth, which can be easily seen on the images. Intraoral scanner plaque area/ tooth surface area ratio and intraoral photograph plaque area/ tooth surface area ratio were calculated and recorded for each tooth.