Proposals for standardization of terms in clinical trials of caries preventive agents and procedures.
The purpose of this paper was to comment on FDI's terminology for clinical trials of caries preventive agents and procedures. It is recommended that terms used to describe the score transitions observed in clinical trials, or checks of caries diagnostic reproducibility of examiners, should not contain words which imply qualitative judgments on the observed changes. It is suggested that caries increment should be used instead of "positive reversal", caries decrement instead of "negative reversal"; and scoring inconsistencies for score changes occurring in the results of checks on the diagnostic reproducibility of examiners. These recommendations would avoid the contradictions in terms which complicate the understanding of FDI's terminology.
D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D009626:Terminology as Topic