title: Advances in measurements of periodontal bone and attachment loss.
abstract: Periodontal probing and measurements using intraoral radiographs are widely utilized clinical techniques to measure attachment and bone levels, respectively. Determination of progressive disease, healing, or regeneration in clinical studies may require maximal sensitivity and attention to measurement error in order to assure that changes detected by new methodology are accurate. Both types of methods are susceptible to errors due to resolution, repeatability, and accuracy of the technique. While both probing and radiographic methods are useful in clinical trials they vary widely with respect to these errors. For example, manual probing is repeatable to within 1 mm better than 90% of the time, and state-of-the-art radiographic methods, such as digital subtraction radiography, can detect as little as 1 mg of bony change.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics, University of Alabama School of Dentistry, Birmingham, USA. jeffcoat@uab.edu
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Jeffcoat
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Reddy
mesh_terms: D016301:Alveolar Bone Loss / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D000539:Alveolar Process / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D017622:Periodontal Attachment Loss / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010517:Periodontics / Q000295:instrumentation; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement; D012038:Regeneration; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique; D014945:Wound Healing