Year : 2018

Volume : Volume 8

Issue : Issue 2

Address for correspondence :
Dr. Sonal Chowdhary.
sonalsingla@rediffmail.com

Abstract

Background:  Orthodontically induced apical root resorption is a common and untoward iatrogenic side effect of orthodontic treatment. In the current study, an attempt was made to correlate the amount of root resorption following orthodontic treatment by maxillary distalization on OPG and CBCT.  Material and method: The sample consisted of 268 maxillary teeth in 20 patients who underwent distalization of maxillary dentition and were around the completion of their fixed orthodontic treatment. Two calibrated examiners assessed blindly the presence or absence and the severity of apical root resorption on the OPG images and the corresponding reconstructed CBCT images after treatment. Resorption was evaluated as no, mild, moderate, severe, and extreme.  Results: On OPG, 8 incisors and 4 molars could not be assessed. These and their CBCT counterparts were excluded from the study. Statistically significant difference was found between the two methods of assessment of root resorption (P<0.001)  although a significantly strong correlation (Spearman’s Coefficient 0.718) was found between the two. 70.9% teeth showed no resorption on OPG while 49.6% teeth showed no resorption on CBCT. 25.3% teeth showed mild resorption on OPG while it was 39.5% on CBCT, 2.9% on OPG showed moderate resorption while it was 9.3% on CBCT. Severe and extreme resorption was found in only 2 teeth by CBCT.  Conclusions: OPG tends to underestimate apical root resorption after orthodontic tooth movement. CBCT might be a useful complementary diagnostic method to conventional radiography for fine tuning and necessary modification in treatment modality to curtail further loss of root.

Keywords: CBCT, OPG, Orthodontics, Root resorption.