Diagnosis of Vertical Root Fracture by Digital Radiography With and WithoutUnsharp Masking Filter: An In-vitro Study

The digital radiography offers a variety of image processing techniques. Dueto the importance of the accuracy of this method and its widespread applications, in this study we aimto investigate the diagnose of vertical root fracture (VRF) by conventional digital radiography with andwithout unsharp masking (UM) filter.

Radiographs were taken from 24 extracted anterior teeth before and afterVRF induction. The root canal was prepared with passive step-back technique, and then the teethwere divided into two halves buccolingually with a very thin disk. The two halves were re-attached toeach other and mounted in a mixture of gypsum and sawdust. After processing by the UM filter, theradiographs were evaluated by two observers to detect the presence or absence of VRF.

For the first observer, the sensitivity of both methods was the same, while the specificity of theUM filtering mode was higher. For the second observer, the sensitivity of the unfiltered mode was higher,while the specificity of the two methods was the same.

There is no significant difference between digital radiography with and without the UM filterin diagnosing VRF. Due to the high sensivity and specifity of the UM filtering method, the specialist canuse this filter based on personal preferences.