Objectives: To assess the impact of spatial resolution and cone beam CT (CBCT) unit on CBCT images for the detection accuracy of condylar defects. Methods: 42 temporomandibular joints were scanned, respectively, with the CBCT units ProMax® 3D (Planmeca Oy, Helsinki, Finland) and DCT PRO (Vatech, Co., Ltd., YonginSi, Republic of Korea) at normal and high resolutions. Seven dentists evaluated all the test images with respect to the presence or the absence of condylar defects. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was employed to define the detection accuracy. Two-way analysis of variance was used to analyse the values under the receiver operating characteristic curves for the differences among imaging groups and observers. Intraobserver variation was analysed using the Wilcoxon test. Results: Macroscopic anatomy examination revealed that, of the 42 temporomandibular joint condylar surfaces, 18 were normal and 24 had defects on the surface of condyles. No significant differences were found between the images scanned with normal and high resolutions for both CBCT units ProMax 3D (p 5 0.119) and DCT PRO (p 5 0.740). Significant differences exist between image groups of DCT PRO and ProMax 3D (p , 0.05). Neither the inter-nor the intraobserver variability were significant. Conclusions: The spatial resolution per se did not have an impact on the detection accuracy of condylar defects. The detection accuracy of condylar defects highly depends on the CBCT unit used for examination.

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Objectives: To investigate and compare the detection accuracy of bony defects on the condylar surface of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) in cone beam CT (CBCT) images scanned with standard and large view protocols on the same machine. Methods: 21 dry human skulls with 42 TMJs were scanned with the large view and standard view protocols of the CBCT scanner Promax 3D (Planmeca, Helsinki, Finland). Seven observers evaluated all the images for the presence or absence of defects on the surface of the condyle. Using the macroscopic examination of condylar defects as the gold standard, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed. Results: Macroscopic examination revealed that, of the 42 condyles, 18 were normal and 24 had a defect on the surface of the condyles. Areas under the ROC curves for the large view and the standard view group of CBCT images were 0.739 and 0.720, respectively, and no significant difference was found between the two groups of images (p 5 0.902). Neither the interobserver nor the intraobserver variability were significant. Conclusions: The two scanning protocols provided by the CBCT scanner Promax 3D were reliable and comparable with detection of condylar defects.