Reproducibilidad de la alineación dental en medidas digitales y manuales en modelos iniciales de pacientes de ortodoncia de la Universidad Santo Tomás de Bucaramanga

Abstract

Background: The introduction of digital models offers the orthodontist an alternative to the commonly used gypsum study models. Gypsum study models are a standard component of orthodontic records and are central to diagnosis and treatment planning. Objectives: To establish the reproducibility of digital and manual measurements of dental alignment in initial models of orthodontic patients performed at the Santo Tomás University clinics from February 2018 to June 2019. Materials and methods: A diagnostic technology evaluation study was carried out because the reliability of digital and manual measurements was evaluated in new orthodontic patient models from the Santo Tomás University clinics from the first semester of 2018 to the first semester of 2019. A universe of eighty models was obtained and a simple random probability sampling was carried out to obtain the sample, the models were digitized from April 2019 to November of the same year with the Ineos X5 Scanner (Sirona CAD / CAM scanner). Subsequently, each of the researchers was calibrated and once the plaster models and their digital images were obtained, the researcher who obtained the best result in the inter and intra-examiner calibration performed the dental alignment measurement. Manual measurements were carried out with a digital caliper, while digital measurements were taken with Nemocast software. Once the data collection phase was completed, the base was exported to the Stata I / C version 14 statistical program for analysis. The reproducibility of manual and digital measurements was evaluated using the CCI and the 95% confidence interval was established, where values from 0.81 to 1.00 are considered “almost perfect”. The Bland and Altman limits of agreement were evaluated according to the graphic distribution of the difference of the averages, a value close to zero indicated a greater agreement between manual and digital data. A value of p <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: 80 study models were evaluated, corresponding to 43 women (53.8%) and 37 men (46.2%). Intraclass Correlation Coefficient values ranged from 0.643 to 0.874. The measure that presented the highest Intraclass Correlation Coefficient was the distance between the canine and the superior right lateral [CHF: 0.874 95% CI: 0.786 - 0.924]. On the other hand, the lowest value was the distance between the lateral and the lower right central [CHF: 0.643 95% CI: 0.344 - 0.813] when compared with the other measurements taken. It should be noted that more than half of the measurements obtained values greater than 0.81, which is considered a “near perfect” reproducibility according to the scale suggested by Landis and Koch. Conclusions: When evaluating the measurements made in digital and manual models, a high reproducibility was found between them, since the Intraclass Correlation Coefficients indicated a "near perfect" agreement between both groups.Key words: Reproducibility of results, Model, Measurements.