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The Bell BriefFrom Dr. Jennifer Bell, DDS MAGD FICD
MEDIUMResearchTier 1

Intraoral ultrasonography for mid-buccal probing depth assessment

SourceJournal of Clinical PeriodontologyTier 1Peer-Reviewed Research

By Sefa Aydindogan, Metehan Ozdemir, Yunus Emre Balaban, Elif Mutafcılar Velioğlu, Sema S. Hakki, Kaan Orhan

Originally at onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Summary & scoring by The Bell Brief (Dr. Jennifer Bell) using the Drill-Down Protocol (Drill-Down Score) — not the original publisher.

Why it matters for dental

Periodontists, hygienists, and practice owners may gain a non-invasive option for mid-buccal probing depth assessment that matches clinical probing within 0.5 mm at 85 % of sites, potentially reducing patient discomfort and examiner variability.

Key points

  • Intraoral 18-MHz ultrasound produced gingival sulcus depth readings with ICC 0.942 and mean absolute error 0.29 mm compared to UNC-15 probing at 963 mid-buccal sites.
  • Molar sites showed the largest error (0.38 mm) and a mean underestimation of 0.123 mm relative to conventional probing.
  • Agreement remained above ICC 0.78 across bleeding sites, calculus, crowns, orthodontic attachments, and smoking subgroups.
  • Two trained examiners achieved inter-examiner reliability above ICC 0.90 when measuring the same ultrasound images.

Who should care

SpecialistAssociateAcademia

Read the original on Journal of Clinical Periodontology

Full reporting and any paywall content live on onlinelibrary.wiley.com. We summarize and score; we do not republish.

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