Clinical Repeatability of FOTI and Comparison to DIFOTI

Methods: Children 8-13 years of age (n=8) were examined twice on separate days. After supervised brushing all deciduous molars were examined. The following sites were examined: distal and mesial interproximal surfaces, three-or four-sites of each buccal and lingual surface, and the mesial, central and distal fossae of the occlusal surface.

FOTI Scores: 0=sound, 1=small enamel lesion, 2=large enamel lesion

DIFOTI Scores: 0=no caries, 1=probably no caries, 2=not sure, 3=probably caries present, 4=caries present, a=enamel caries

Results: Kappa statistics were computed to evaluate the repeatability of classification of presence or absence of enamel caries. For FOTI, the kappa for all surfaces was 0.94. For DIFOTI, the kappa for all surfaces was 0.53. Comparing FOTI with DIFOTI, the kappa for all surfaces was 0.45 for visit 1 and 0.24 for visit 2.

Conclusion: The data indicates that the use of FOTI for enamel caries detection can be repeated with excellent agreement. Agreement between FOTI and DIFOTI was not very strong. Although the two methods showed similar percentages of sites with caries, there was a fairly high level of disagreement regarding which sites were carious.

This research was supported by NIDCR grant #P01DE13540.