Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Methodol. Mar 20, 2024; 14(1): 88850
Published online Mar 20, 2024. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v14.i1.88850
Convenient model of hard tissue simulation for dental radiographic research and instruction
Etiene Andrade Munhoz, Claudio Roberto Gaiao Xavier, Roberto Ponce Salles, Ana Lúcia Alvares Capelozza, Augusto Vanni Bodanezi
Etiene Andrade Munhoz, Augusto Vanni Bodanezi, Department of Dentistry, Health Science Centre, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis 88040-379, Brazil
Claudio Roberto Gaiao Xavier, Roberto Ponce Salles, Ana Lúcia Alvares Capelozza, Department of Stomatology, Radiology and Oral Surgery, School of Dentistry, University of São Paulo, Bauru 17012-901, Brazil
Author contributions: Bodanezi AV, Munhoz EA, and Capelozza ALA contributed on conception and design of the work, the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data for the work; Bodanezi AV and Munhoz EA also contributed on drafting the work and revising it critically for important intellectual content; Xavier CRG and Salles RP contributed on collecting and analyzing data for the work.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Local Ethics Committee in Brazil (Approval No. 153).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest at this manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Etiene Andrade Munhoz, DDS, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Dentistry, Health Science Centre, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Delfino Conti Street, Florianopolis 88040-379, Brazil. etiamfob@yahoo.com
Received: October 13, 2023
Peer-review started: October 13, 2023
First decision: December 7, 2023
Revised: December 20, 2023
Accepted: January 19, 2024
Article in press: January 19, 2024
Published online: March 20, 2024
Processing time: 145 Days and 16.8 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

The process of learning, building, and improving radiographic diagnostic skills is a structured and rigorous undertaking that requires extensive human training. This should involve practicing radiologic technical skills, expanding scientific knowledge about diseases, and exposure to clinical environments.

Research motivation

Trabecular bone is highly visible, dominating images of the alveolar structure and adding complexity to human radiographic analysis. Nevertheless, most in vitro studies on the reliability of the radiographic method are carried out only on uncovered extracted teeth, which may increase the differences related to clinical study results. To date, no hard tissue simulation model can be manufactured in a simple and individualized way to mimic human bone for radiological training nor studies.

Research objectives

To investigate the potential of an alternative phantom to simulate the trabecular appearance of the human maxilla in conventional periapical radiographs.

Research methods

Half-maxillary phantoms built from gypsum-ground rice were exposed to X-rays, and the resulting images (experimental group) were compared to standardized radiographic images produced from dry human maxillary bone (control group) (n = 7). The images were blindly assessed according to strict criteria by three examiners for the usual trabecular aspects of the surrounding bone, and significant differences between groups and in assessment reliability were compared using Fisher’s exact and kappa tests (α = 0.05).

Research results

The differences in the trabecular aspects between groups were not statistically significant. In addition, interobserver agreement among observers was 0.43 and 0.51 for the control and experimental groups, respectively, whereas intraobserver agreement was 0.71 and 0.73, respectively.

Research conclusions

According to the preliminary results presented, the phantom constructed from dental gypsum and rice has the potential to simulate maxillary trabecular bone on laboratory periapical radiographs.

Research perspectives

The perspectives are to improve the technique using rice as well as the creation of techniques using other accessible materials.