Comparing the accuracy of manual tracing to digital tracing – Angular measurements

Abstract

Cephalometric radiography is an essential tool for studying growth and development of the facial skeleton, diagnosis and treatment planning, and evaluating pre- and post-treatment changes. In clinical orthodontics, the efficacy of both commercially available cephalometric tracing software programs and commonly used cephalometric analyses need to be evaluated for accuracy in order to allow the clinician to select appropriate software and methods of analysis. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the cephalometric measurements by manual tracings and computerized tracings using Facad software. The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of cephalometric measurements using Digital (Facad software) with manual tracings. The sample consisted of 20 lateral Cephalometric radiographs of patients randomly selected from the existing records of patients. Angular measurements were analyzed on each radiograph. All the lateral cephalographs were hand-traced and the same cephalographs were then scanned digitally traced with Facad software. The results were then tabulated and analysed. The level of significance (p-value) was 0.05 and was set at p < 0.05. Paired t-test was performed using SPSS software for comparison between tracing done by manual method and by Facad software. All the measurements were calculated and tabulated. Mean values were assessed and paired t-test was performed, which indicated there was no significant difference between the two variables for each angular measurement. Both digital and manually traced angular measurements were accurate and reliable and a non significant difference. Digital (Facad software) tracing can be adopted as a reliable way of cephalometic diagnosis.