Early Diagnosis of Proximal Caries Lesions in the Primary Molar With Qray Pen^TM

Objectives: Dental caries is the most common chronic disease that occurs in the elementary school time. The current worldwide trend of dental caries is decreasing through the efforts for prevention of dental caries such as continued public educations and promotions, fluoridation projects, and through promotions of public awareness of oral health, which led to changes in the trend of dental caries that it is now found more in the proximal surface than the conventional occlusal surface. New diagnostic equipments for the purpose of early detection of caries have been developed one after another, of which excellence in performance has already been proven by laboratory researches. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of newly-developed Qray pen^TM (All in one Bio, Seoul, Korea) system for the diagnosis of early proximal caries by comparing it with the conventional methods of visual inspection and periapical radiography.
Methods: This study was carried out during the period of September to December 2015 after obtaining an approval (2-2015-0002) from the Institutional Ethics Committee of Wonkwang University targeting 32 children at the ages of 3-12 who visited pediatric dentistry in the Dental Hospital for dental check-ups. Two investigators selected and examined a total of 100 primary molars which didn’t undergo restorative treatment and of which marginal ridge was not destroyed due to the progression of proximal caries.
Results: Comparization of visual inspection, readings of posterior radiography image and readings of Qray pen^TM image were carried out .
Conclusions: So, Q-ray pen is expected to be a useful and convenient auxiliary device that can help the detection of hidden proximal caries in the primary molar progressed up to the dentin layer.