ArticleAnnals of translational medicine2022
Importance of bitewing radiographs for the early detection of interproximal carious lesions and the impact on healthcare expenditure in Japan.
Article in Annals of translational medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating YOLO for dental caries diagnosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Evidence-based dentistry · 2025Pooled it
- Deep convolutional neural networks for early detection of interproximal caries using bitewing radiographs: A systematic review.Evidence-based dentistry · 2025Pooled it
- Artificial intelligence for radiographic imaging detection of caries lesions: a systematic review.BMC oral health · 2024Pooled it
- Contemporary endodontic practices among endodontic specialists in Saudi Arabia: a comparative cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Deep Learning-Based Dental Caries Diagnosis: A Modality-Stratified Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Faster R-CNN and Mask R-CNN.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Bitewing Radiographs in Proximal Caries Diagnostics and Restorative Treatment of Adults: A Retrospective Study of Electronic Health Records.Caries research · 2025Article
- Intraoral vs. extraoral bitewing radiography for approximal caries detection: A multi-observer ex vivo ROC study using thin-section microscopy as gold standard.Clinical oral investigations · 2025Article
- Observational Diagnostics: The Building Block of AI-Powered Visual Aid for Dental Practitioners.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Developing an AI-Powered Algorithm for Automated Detection and Classification of Dental Caries from Intraoral Radiographs: A Machine Learning Approach.Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences · 2024Review
- AI-Assisted Detection of Interproximal, Occlusal, and Secondary Caries on Bite-Wing Radiographs: A Single-Shot Deep Learning Approach.Journal of imaging informatics in medicine · 2024Article
- Developing the Benchmark: Establishing a Gold Standard for the Evaluation of AI Caries Diagnostics.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGlobally, the direct cost of dental caries is approximately $298B yearly, consuming 5-10% of national healthcare budgets. Bitewing radiographs (BWR) are the standard method of diagnosing interproximal dental caries. In Japan, bitewing radiographs are rarely used. This retrospective observational study was conducted to measure the potential economic impact of carious lesions left undiagnosed and untreated due to this omission of bitewing radiographs.
methodsThe total number of existing carious lesions, the number of undiagnosed lesions, and costs of treating these lesions were calculated from the national database of Ministry of Health, Labor and Wellness in Japan between June 2013 and 2017. The number of affected teeth was estimated using prevalence data and undiagnosed lesions were estimated. The expense associated with treating progressed lesions was calculated using the standard Japanese fee structure. BWR trends were assessed, and analyses were performed to understand the differences between states and populations over time.
resultsThe average number of BWR taken monthly per office was 48.3±1.1 (average ± SD). It was calculated that an average of 6,429,155 lesions went undiagnosed per month, 93.5 teeth per practice, and 1.6 teeth per patient. The cost of treating lesions that went undiagnosed and then progressed into more invasive restorations was estimated to be between $57M-$218M more (difference between NaF varnish and class II restorations), and $150M-$443M more (difference between Class II restoration and crown or crown with RCT).
conclusionsBWRs are crucial in diagnosing a significant number of carious lesions. There is considerable impact on health and cost to the national health system due to undiagnosed lesions. Practitioners need to be educated on reading and understanding BWR, and policy should be changed to cover BWR.
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