Evaluating the Accuracy of Dental Space Prediction as a Simple Visual Observation Compared to the Standard Prediction Method in Mixed Dentition Period

Background: Investigating and analyzing the dental artery space during a mixed dentition period is very important because it is used in orthodontic treatments planning. The main purpose of this study is to compare the standard Tanaka-Johntson method and simple visual observation in the space analysis in a mixed dentition period and realizing the accuracy of the simple visual observation. Methods Materials: The present study follows a double blind cross-sectional study. Three patients who were in the mixed compare period were selected and six samples were collected from the upper and lower Maxilla duplicate casts. Data were analyzed using ICC and correlation and paired t-test with SPSS 22 software. Results: The general analysis result of the estimated sizes by specialists and residents and the obtained sizes from the Tanaka-Johntson method shows only 28% of the agreement between these two methods. The announced agreement for the sizes was 31% by residents and 22 % by specialists. According to the obtained data, the average difference between specialists and residents was at least one hundredth of a millimeter and the maximum difference was ninety-seven hundredths of a millimeter. Conclusion: The results of the present study show that the estimation of space difference in a simple visual observation method has not an acceptable accuracy in comparison with the Tanaka-Johntson method. In addition, the conducted estimations by residents were also slightly more accurate than that of the specialists.