title: Dentascan - is the investment worth the hype ???
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Open Bone Measurement (OBM) and Bone Sounding (BS) are most reliable but invasive clinical methods for Alveolar Bone Level (ABL) assessment, causing discomfort to the patient. Routinely, IOPAs & OPGs are the commonest radiographic techniques used, which tend to underestimate bone loss and obscure buccal/lingual defects. Novel technique like dentascan (CBCT) eliminates this limitation by giving images in 3 planes - sagittal, coronal and axial.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare & correlate non-invasive 3D radiographic technique of Dentascan with BS & OBM, and IOPA and OPG, in assessing the ABL.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional diagnostic study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred and five sites were subjected to clinical and radiographic diagnostic techniques. Relative distance between the alveolar bone crest and reference wire was measured. All the measurements were compared and tested against the OBM.
  
  
  METHODS
  Student's t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There is statistically significant difference between dentascan and OBM, only BS showed agreement with OBM (p < 0.05). Dentascan weakly correlated with OBM & BS lingually.Rest all techniques showed statistically significant difference between them (p= 0.00).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Within the limitations of this study, only BS seems to be comparable with OBM with no superior result of Dentascan over the conventional techniques, except for lingual measurements.
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Periodontics, K.M. Shah Dental College & Hospital , At. & Po. Piparia, Ta. Waghodia, Dist. Vadodara, Gujarat, India .
authors.forename: Monali A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.affiliation: PG, Department of Periodontics, K.M. Shah Dental College & Hospital , At. & Po. Piparia, Ta. Waghodia, Dist. Vadodara, Gujarat, India .
authors.forename: Sneha S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.affiliation: Professor and H.O.D, Department of Periodontics, K.M. Shah Dental College & Hospital , At. & Po. Piparia, Ta. Waghodia, Dist. Vadodara, Gujarat, India .
authors.forename: Deepak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dave
keywords: Alveolar bone level; Bone sounding; CBCT; Dentascan