Canal Length Measurement by RVG

Objectives: Radiographic techniques play a significant role in dentistry. Despite their developments,radiographic machines have some problems in determining the root canal length. In recent years, R.V.G system has changed the dental radiology. The aim of this research was to compare the canal length of teeth by two techniques including R.V.G and conventional parallel radiography. Methods: In this study, 65 single rooted teeth were used. The canal length was first determined in vitro by visual manner. Then, the measurements were carried out by R.V.G system and parallel periapical technique. The means of calculated lengths were compared in three couples with statistical t-student, ANOVA and Duncan's test. Results: The results showed that the mean canal length in conventional, parallel periapical and R.V.G methods are 21.14,21.60 and 22.19, respectively. According to ANOVA test there was a significant difference in canal length between the real length and periapical radiography as well as between the real length and R.V.G, but there was no significant difference between periapical radiography and R.V.G. Conclusion: No difference was found between the two techniques. Also, the accuracy of both techniques appeared to be the same. However, because of advantages of R.V.G, it is much more preferred to other systems.