Use of Radiographic Contrast to Detect Dental Caries

June 15, 2016 updated by: Douglas K Benn DDS, PhD, Creighton University

The Use of Radiographic Contrast to Differentiate Cavitated From Non-cavitated Dental Caries

The proposed test is intended to enable dentists to differentiate between cavitated and non-cavitated tooth decay in the areas where teeth are in contact (interproximal surfaces). In these areas, dentists cannot visually inspect for caries, and currently bitewing X-rays (BWs) only correctly detect the presence of enamel decay 15-25% of the time. This low sensitivity can lead to late treatment resulting in unnecessarily large fillings, crowns, pain, root canals, and possible later loss of teeth.

Hypothesis: Use of radiographic contrast on teeth will increase the accuracy of detection of early cavitation from 58% to 90%.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

Tooth sites will be recorded by tooth number, type of surface (mesial, distal,occlusal), cavitated, non-cavitated, healthy. Radiographs will similarly be scored.Although contrast agents are classified as drugs this is not a study of drug properties or effect on cells since the properties of the agent are already well know and its safety record well established. This study will be recording the radiopacity of the contrast agent on healthy tooth surfaces, non-cavitated tooth surfaces and cavitated tooth surfaces. The outcome for each surface type will be presence or absence of a radiopacity on a radiograph which will be made at the one and only visit for each study subject. The radiograph contains the data from the intervention (placement of contrast agent) and the outcome will be assessed some weeks later after the completion of the data collection.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

33

Phase

  • Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Nebraska
      • Omaha, Nebraska, United States, 68178
        • Creighton University School of Dentistry

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

19 years to 99 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • must have a minimum of 2 adjacent teeth so that interproximal surfaces of interest are in contact and hidden from direct visual inspection.
  • the occlusal plane should be normal so that the interproximal contact regions are normal.
  • English or Spanish speaker.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • pregnant women
  • a person who has participated in a similar study involving dental radiography within the last 12 months.
  • fillings must not be present in the regions of interest.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Contrast
All subjects will be in one group who will have a control radiograph of teeth before applying the Sodium Iodide contrast agent topically between the teeth (the intervention) when another radiograph will be taken to test for the presence of contrast in a cavity.
Application of Sodium Iodide contrast topically to tooth immediately followed by radiograph.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Presence of a radiopacity below the tooth surface at a site likely to develop tooth decay.
Time Frame: Immediately after application of contrast agent.
The PI will perform the clinical application of the contrast agent and radiograph the subject. In this way it will be known that the data has been collected. At a later date 3 independent dentists will be provided with blinded radiographs in a randomized order to report the presence or absence of cavitated caries lesions.
Immediately after application of contrast agent.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Douglas K Benn, DDS PhD, Creighton University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

August 1, 2012

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2013

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 27, 2012

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 31, 2012

First Posted (Estimate)

February 1, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

June 17, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 15, 2016

Last Verified

June 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CU IRB-01

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Dental Caries

Clinical Trials on Radiographic contrast agent. Sodium Iodide.

Subscribe