Reliability and Accuracy of a Newly Developed Intraoral Ultrasound Device to Evaluate the Facial Alveolar Bone Height

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of a newly developed intraoral ultrasound (US) device to evaluate the facial alveolar bone height. Methods: 38 cadaver teeth distributed across 3 human cadavers were prepared by having placed two or more notches on the facial enamel surface. The maxillary and mandibular teeth were imaged with a custom designed intra-oral 20 MHz ultrasound probe. This custom designed US is small and is specifically designed for intra-oral use, as currently available medical US probes are bulky and are unsuited to be used intra-orally. After the US scans were done, the maxilla and mandibles were sectioned from the cadavers and scanned with Micro-CT (µCT) (gold standard). For each sample, the distance from the inferior border of the most apical notch to the tip of the alveolar bone crest on the facial aspect of the teeth was measured from the US and µCT images. ITK-Snap was used to orient and measure the µCT images and RadiANT was used to measure the US images. Results: The intra examiner and inter examiner reliability for both the µCT and US alveolar bone crest measurements was found to be excellent (intra examiner ICC is 0.998 for µCT and 0.997 for US, inter examiner ICC is 0.996 for µCT and in between 0.947 and 0.950 for US). The accuracy of the US was found to be good compared to µCT (ICC in between 0.885 and 0.894). Conclusion: Using the ultrasound device to evaluate the facial alveolar bone height has excellent reliability and good accuracy compared to the µCT gold standard.