Purpose: This study is to investigate the differences of primary caries detection on smooth surface in the maxillary anterior teeth using quantitative light-induced fluorescence(QLF),digital photo and visual examination.
Methods: Three hundreds of middle school students in Deyang city and Ziyang city were examined. Seventeen hundreds and thirty-two maxillary incisors and canines were included. After being cleaned and dried, the white spots (primary caries on smooth surface) were examined by QLF, digital camera, and visual examination. The difference among three methods was analyzed by Chi-square test using SPSS 11.5.
Results: In QLF examination, 24.08 percent of the examined teeth were found out having white spots. Results of the Chi-square test showed that QLF had a significantly higher capability(24.08%) on finding out the primary demineralized spots than digital camera(22.17%) and visual examination(20.61%). There was significant difference among the three diagnostic methods(P<0.05).
Conclusion: The study suggested that QLF is a trustworthy, speedy, safe and noninvasive diagnosed method and was worthy extending and applying in the clinic.