ArticleClinical and experimental dental research2026
Site-Specific Associations Between CBCT-Derived Gray Value and Fractal Dimension and DEXA T-Scores in Postmenopausal Women: A Cross-Sectional Analytical Study.
Article in Clinical and experimental dental research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveOsteoporosis is a silent systemic skeletal disease characterized by microarchitectural deterioration and increased fracture risk; thus, early case-finding is essential. Although dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) is the reference standard for bone mineral density (BMD) assessment, limited accessibility and cost restrict its use for large-scale screening. Given that cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is routinely obtained in dental practice, image-derived parameters-gray value (GV) and fractal dimension (FD)-may provide insight into their association with systemic bone mineral density measured by DEXA in postmenopausal women, without additional radiation exposure. MATERIALS AND
methodsThis cross-sectional study included 63 postmenopausal women aged 50-70 years undergoing dental CBCT (NewTom 3G; standardized acquisition). Six trabecular regions of interest (ROIs) were evaluated: mandibular retromolar, mandibular premolar, mandibular anterior (central), maxillary premolar, maxillary anterior (central), and maxillary tuberosity. GV values were extracted using OnDemand3D-Dental from standardized 25 × 25-pixel ROIs positioned to exclude cortical bone and dental structures. FD was calculated in ImageJ using a box-counting method following Gaussian blur subtraction, binarization, and skeletonization. Lumbar spine and hip BMD were measured by DEXA and categorized according to WHO criteria. Statistical analyses included t-tests/ANOVA, Pearson correlation (α = 0.05). Intra-observer reliability was assessed with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC).
resultsDEXA classified 49.2% as normal, 34.9% as osteopenic, and 15.9% as osteoporotic. Lumbar assessment identified more non-normal cases than the hip evaluation. Reliability was good (ICC > 0.70). Although mean GV and FD did not differ significantly between groups, site-specific GV-FD correlations were observed. Notably, FD at the maxillary premolar correlated with lumbar T-scores in the non-normal group (p = 0.030).
conclusionWhile GV and FD did not discriminate BMD categories overall, region-dependent associations between CBCT-derived parameters and systemic BMD were observed, suggesting potential clinical relevance in dental imaging. These exploratory findings should not be interpreted as diagnostic or screening indicators and require confirmation in larger studies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.