Comparing third molar root development staging in panoramic radiographs, extracted teeth and in cone beam computed tomography

This study aimed at performing and comparing third molar development staging in extracted teeth (EX), in panoramic radiographs (PAN) and in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). Extracted third molars (n=158, 95 maxillary, 63 mandibular) from 102 patients (36 males, 66 females) having at least one preoperative PAN and one CBCT volume were studied. Third molar development staging was performed in PAN, EX and in CBCT using Gleiser et al. (1955) technique modified by Köhler et al (1994). A polytomous logistic regression model was used to compare the staging performed EX and in CBCT with the gold standard staging in PAN. In all the pair-wise comparisons between staging modalities 100 third molars (63.3%) were equally staged. The other 58 third molars (36.7%) were staged with a maximum difference of one stage. No statistically significant differences between the three staging modalities were detected (p=0.26). The comparison between EX and PAN staging revealed higher similarity (p=0.98 in stages 5-10) than the comparison between CBCT and PAN staging (p=0.81 in stages 5, 7 and 9, and 0.80 in stages 6, 8 and 10). The studied third molar staging technique originally designed in PAN can be applied for third molar staging EX and in CBCT.status: accepte