Assessment of OXIS contacts-a comparison of three methods.

PURPOSE: 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 4257 contacts of 1104 caries-free pre-school children. Two calibrated examiners 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 using the RSM & PM methods. These were compared to the OXIS scores from DCE method which was available from previous records. Kappa agreement was used to compare results obtained RSM and PM methods with DCE. RESULTS: 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 to the DCE method. PM was found to be slightly more accurate than the RSM method for scoring OXIS contacts.