Stereomicroscopy has low accucary for detecting dentine carious lesion depth

     New article reports new evidences on the ambiguity of dentine aspects under stereomicroscopy (so called "histology" in Cariology) with regard to degree of mineral content in dentine.

-   Stereomicroscopy has low accuracy for detecting the depth of carious lesion in dentine. Sousa et al., Eur J Oral Sci, 125(3):229-231, 2017 (DOI: 10.1111/eos.12350; http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eos.12350/abstract)

     Stereomicroscopic aspect is similar to the clinical visual aspect, but with microscopic resolution. The ambiguity of dentine aspects under reflected light makes it difficult to determine the severity of caries lesions both in the clinic and in the field. The link between Cariology and Social Sciences in hampered by the fact that non cavitated caries lesions can be as severe (in terms of lesion depth) as cavitated caries lesions.

Translucent dentine: microradiography X stereomicroscopy (more cases)

DENTINE ASPECT UNDER STEREOMICROSCOPY IS AMBIGUOUS REGARDING DENTINE MINERAL CONTENT

De Sousa, Frederico Barbosa

Dept. of Morphology, Health Sciences Center, Federal University of Paraiba, Joao Pessoa, Paraiba, Brazil  

 Translucent dentine (dentine aspect under stereo microscopy, SM) plays and important role in the histopathology of carious lesions. Translucent dentine is commonly regarded as an aspect of sclerotic (hypermineralized dentine). In fact, translucent dentine is ambiguous: it can be either hyper or hypomineralized dentine. Here, new cases of translucent dentine that represent demineralized dentine under microradiography (mRX) are presented. The use of SM as a gold standard technique for measuring caries lesion depth in dentine lacks sientific validity. 

Fig.1. mRX (upper) and SM images of dentine area (white arrow) that appears as translucent under SM.

Fig.2. Two dentine aspects of dentine under SM (white, translucent, and black arrows, "normal" dentine) are shown as demineralized areas under mRX.