Assessment of OXIS contacts-a comparison of three methods

Introduction: To compare OXIS contacts by means of Replication using Sectional die Models (RSM) and Photographs of the Models (PM) with Direct Clinical Examination (DCE) in a sample of preschool children aged 3–4 years.
Methods: A retrospective cross sectional study was performed using existing records of sectional die models and their photographs among 4476 contacts of 1119 caries free pre school children. Two calibrated examiners (one for each method) scored the contacts between the distal surface of the primary first molar and mesial surface of the primary second molar using OXIS criteria from the occlusal view. Kappa agreement was used to compare results obtained RSM and PM methods with DCE.
Results: The number of sectional die models & photographs available for analysis was 4257. The kappa agreement between the RSM and DCE methods was 98.48%; and between the PM and DCE methods was 99.42%, both of which indicated perfect agreement.
Conclusion: The RSM and PM methods were found to have an excellent agreement in scoring OXIS contacts when compared with the DCE method. PM was found to be slightly more accurate than the RSM method for scoring OXIS contacts.
Key words: contact types; deciduous teeth; pre school children; Replica method;