Description Module

Description Module

The Description Module contains narrative descriptions of the clinical trial, including a brief summary and detailed description. These descriptions provide important information about the study's purpose, methodology, and key details in language accessible to both researchers and the general public.

Description Module path is as follows:

Study -> Protocol Section -> Description Module

Description Module


Ignite Creation Date: 2025-12-25 @ 12:52 AM
Ignite Modification Date: 2025-12-25 @ 12:52 AM
NCT ID: NCT02340767
Brief Summary: The study will determine whether clinicians who use a diagnostic device treat suspicious occlusal carious lesions (SOCL) surgically more often, with the same frequency, or less frequently, than dentists not relying on a diagnostic device. The study will also determine -- among those SOCLs that are opened -- whether the proportion of lesions that extend into the dentin when dentists are using a diagnostic device is more than, the same, or less than when no device is used.
Detailed Description: The overall objectives of this study is to assess the contributions of diagnostic devices in clinicians' decision-making processes surrounding suspicious occlusal carious lesions (SOCL), an assessment that has not yet been attempted, despite the growing popularity of these devices. SOCLs can be defined as occlusal surface areas where visual, tactile, and radiographic signs are insufficient to definitively diagnose caries but where some of these signs are present.This study examines the use of two diagnostic devices on dental practitioners' identification and treatment of SOCLs. During a four-week pre-intervention period, 90 clinicians will collect and record descriptive and treatment information for the SOCLs they identify. Clinicians will then be randomized into one of 3 study arms: no diagnostic device, DIAGNOdent®, and Spectra®, and will collect and record similar information as the pre-intervention period for another six weeks, enrolling an additional 20 SOCLs. They will also complete diagnostic vignettes at the beginning and end of the study, as well as a post-study questionnaire on the utility of the devices, if assigned to a device arm. Analyses will examine differences in proportion of SOCLs treated surgically in the groups with and without the diagnostic device; and, for those treated surgically, differences in the proportions of SOCLs with extension into dentin. Differences in pre- and post-study responses on the vignettes will suggest which components of the decision-making process involved in SOCL identification and management have been modified by use of the diagnostic devices.
Study: NCT02340767
Study Brief:
Protocol Section: NCT02340767