New portable system for dental plaque measurement using a digital single-lens reflex camera and image analysis: Study of reliability and validation

Abstract

Background:The quantification of the dental plaque (DP) by indices has limitations: They depend on the subjective operator's evaluation and are measured in an ordinal scale. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a method to measure DP in a proportional scale.Materials and Methods:A portable photographic positioning device (PPPD) was designed and added to a photographic digital single-lens reflex camera. Seventeen subjects participated in this study, after DP disclosure with the erythrosine, their incisors, and a calibration scale ware photographed by two operators in duplicate, re-positioning the PPPD among each acquisition. A third operator registered the Quigley-Hein modified by Turesky DP index (Q-H/TPI). After tooth brushing, the same operators repeated the photographs and the Q-H/TPI. The image analysis system (IAS) technique allowed the measurement in mm2 of the vestibular total tooth area and the area with DP.Results:The reliability was determined with the intra-class correlation coefficient that was 0.9936 (P < 0.05) for the intra-operator repeatability and 0.9931 (P < 0.05) for inter-operator reproducibility. The validity was assessed using the Spearman's correlation coefficient that indicated a strong positive correlation with the Q-H/TPI rs = 0.84 (P < 0.01). The sensitivity of the IAS was evaluated with two sample sizes, only the IAS was able to detect significant differences (P < 0.05) with the sample of smaller size (n = 8).Conclusions:Image analysis system showed to be a reliable and valid method to measure the quantity of DP in a proportional scale, allowing a more powerful statistical analysis, thus facilitating trials with a smaller sample size.

Effects of a novel dye containing toothpaste versus regular fluoridated toothpaste for supragingival biofilm reduction in patients with chronic gingivitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…The assessment of the outcome of oral hygiene practices needs tools with higher accuracy, consistency and sensitivity towards the amount of remaining biofilm on the surface of the teeth [16]. Digital plaque image analysis (DPIA) could be a noninvasive alternative for measuring biofilm on the tooth surface and has been used in some studies [10].…”

DenTiUS Plaque, a Web-Based Application for the Quantification of Bacterial Plaque: Development and Usability Study

“…An expert operator could outline both regions manually using a graphical interface [ 14 , 15 ]. Also possible were semiautomatic approaches, whereby the image-processing algorithm required intervention from the dental expert to work [ 16 , 17 ], or images could be segmented automatically using image-processing techniques [ 18 - 20 ].…”

“…Some researchers used image-processing software [ 16 , 17 , 21 - 23 ] or general-purpose data-processing tools [ 24 , 25 ], while others developed their own methods to process these images [ 24 , 26 ]. More recently, specific dental assessment software has been used to quantify plaque levels [ 18 , 27 ].…”

“…The different methods available today produce promising results, with many studies reporting the suitability of automatic or semiautomatic techniques for assessing dental plaque and, as a result, oral hygiene levels [ 16 - 18 , 24 , 27 , 29 , 32 ]. Specifically, quantitative light‐induced fluorescence digital (QLF-D) is an adaptation of QLF that employs a modified filter set (D007; Inspektor Research Systems BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands), narrow‐band violet light (405 nm), and a high‐specification digital single‐lens reflex camera.…”

DenTiUS Plaque, a Web-Based Application for the Quantification of Bacterial Plaque: Development and Usability Study (Preprint)

“…Also possible were semiautomatic approaches, whereby the image-processing algorithm required intervention from the dental expert to work [16,17], or images could be segmented automatically using image-processing techniques [18][19][20]. Some researchers used image-processing software [16,17,[21][22][23] or general-purpose data-processing tools [24,25], while others developed their own methods to process these images [24,26]. More recently, specific dental assessment software has been used to quantify plaque levels [18,27].…”