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The effects of examiner fatigue on the diagnostic accuracy of dental radiographs

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Abstract

Objectives

The aim of the study was to find out whether and to what extent the performance of dentists regarding diagnostic evaluation of dental radiographs is influenced by symptoms of fatigue.

Materials and methods

Over a period of 40 minutes, 21 dentists evaluated a database of 96 randomly selected, infinitely repeating intraoral dental radiographs for the presence of periapical radiolucencies. Both before and after, participants were asked to assess their subjective fatigue using the Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory (SOFI), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and Numerical Rating Scale (NRS). Diagnostic accuracy was analyzed using the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) method. Furthermore, the correlation between diagnostic accuracy and radiographic experience, image viewing time, and level of training was also evaluated.

Results

The study showed that despite increasing fatigue, the diagnostic accuracy of the examiners remained consistent with an average AUC value of 0.768 ± 0.091. Within the 40-min reporting period, no statistically significant fluctuations were found. The diagnostic accuracy varied depending on the radiographic experience: with many years of radiographic experience, the diagnostic accuracy increased. At the same time, the older study participants with greater radiographic experience became less tired compared to younger study participants during the examination.

Conclusions

Although an increase in fatigue was observed during the 40-min examination, the diagnostic accuracy of the doctors remained constant.

Clinical relevance

Due to the high workload which needs to be handled in a limited time, medical and dental professionals have reached a certain level of exposition to stress that can lead to physical fatigue. However, the increasing fatigue should not negatively influence the work of the doctors. The study shows that the radiodiagnostic accuracy remained the same.

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Acknowledgements

This manuscript contains parts of the thesis of Dr. Lisa Sabine Weber entitled “The Effects of Examiner Fatigue on the Diagnostic Accuracy of Dental Radiographs.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Klinik und Poliklinik für Mund, Kiefer- und Gesichtschirurgie – plastische Operationen, Augustusplatz 2, 55131, Mainz, Germany

    Lisa S. Weber & Ralf Schulze

  2. Department of Oral Surgery and Stomatology, Division of Oral Diagnostic Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Ralf Schulze

Authors
  1. Lisa S. Weber
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  2. Ralf Schulze
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Correspondence to Lisa S. Weber.

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Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. The study involved voluntary participants, and no ethical approval was required.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Weber, L.S., Schulze, R. The effects of examiner fatigue on the diagnostic accuracy of dental radiographs. Clin Oral Invest 25, 6193–6199 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-021-03918-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-021-03918-4

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