A method to monitor dental demineralisation in vitro.

This paper presents an in vitro method for monitoring the progression of dental hard tissue demineralisation using consecutive, standardised radiographs. Reliability and factors affecting the reproducibility of this method were established by replicate measurements and comparison to histological evaluation. Whereas assessment of the extent of the lesions by measuring linear distances was highly reproducible, reproducibility of measurements of the central depth of a lesion is affected by the superficial extension and the surrounding hard tissue. Radiographic imaging underestimates the extent of demineralisation as compared to histological analysis.