Preliminary investigation into the validity of dentists' decisions to restore occlusal surfaces of permanent teeth

Abstract
This study investigates the validity of the treatment decisions made by 10 hospital denstists, who examined the fissures of extracted teeth using a visual-only technique. The study shows that 8 of the 10 dentists were more likely to leave carious teeth unrestored than unnecessarily treat sound teeth. The authors suggest that this system of diagnosing occlusal caries is a satisfactory one in terms of its sensitivity and specificity.