Comparison of validation methods for the diagnosis of occlusal caries in primary molars

AIM: To evaluate the reproducibility of 7 validation methods used for caries diagnosis in primary teeth. METHODS : Seventy-two occlusal sites were selected on 40 primary molars. The sites were evaluated independently by 3 experienced examiners using validation methods that involved direct assessment, i.e. by using a (1) magnifying glass (8) and (2) stereomicroscope (35), or indirect assessment i.e. by using (3) photographs, (4) slide projections of photographs, (5) stereomicroscope (35) photographs, (6) stereomicroscope (35) slide projections, and (7) projections of polarised light microscope slides. Cohen’s kappa coefficients were calculated and subjected to the Kruskal-Wallis test at a significance level of 5%. RESULTS : The mean inter-examiner kappa values for the validation methods were 0.31–0.51. There were statistically significant differences (p