Efficacy and acceptability of a newly developed kit in apical root resorption detection

Abstract

A new root resorption detection kit was developed to detect the presence of dentine sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) to overcome the limitations of radiographs and laboratory methods in diagnosing orthodontically induced inflammatory root resorption (OIIRR). This study aims to validate and determine the efficacy of the new kit in detecting DSPP compared with the gold standard, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method, and to determine its user acceptance. This cross-sectional study consisted of 45 subjects who were divided into 3 groups based on prior radiographic assessment of the level of root resorption: normal (RO), mild (RM), and severe (RS). DSPP in GCF samples was analysed using both the new detection kit and the ELISA method. A questionnaire was developed and validated by 2 neutral scholars and was distributed to 30 orthodontists to evaluate future user acceptance. The sensitivity and specificity of the kit were 0.98 and 0.8 respectively. The DSPP concentration level using ELISA method was the highest in the RS group (6.33 ± 0.85 ng/mL) followed by RM group (3.77 ± 0.36 ng/mL) and the RO group had the lowest concentration (2.23 ± 0.55 ng/mL). The new kit also portrayed similar results in DSPP level, the optical density (OD) value was the highest in the RS group (0.62 ± 0.10) followed by RM group (0.33 ± 0.03) and the RO group (0.19 ± 0.06). The differences among all the groups were statistically significant (p<0.05) for both methods. The Pearson correlation coefficient showed a strong and positive correlation between DSPP concentration and OD values, which was statistically significant (p<0.001). The OD values increased linearly with the increase in DSPP concentrations. In conclusion, the new kit was validated, being able to display differentiable colour intensities by detecting the presence of DSPP in the GCF. It was able to determine the different severity of root resorptions like the ELISA method. In the user acceptance survey, most of the responses were positive towards the new kit, which met the respondents' expectations of being a safer, simpler, and more reliable approach for root resorption detection.