Developing a schedule of normative denture treatment need.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study is to assess the reliability and validity of a schedule to determine the normative denture treatment needs of older people.


METHODS
The design used assessed inter-examiner reliability (criterion validity), test-retest reliability, and content and face validity of the schedule.


METHODS
The inter-examiner reliability study took place in a Department of Prosthetic Dentistry, the remainder of the work took place in a community setting.


RESULTS
The results showed that the schedule in terms of an index performed well with reasonable inter-examiner and test-retest reliability. Difficulties however were encountered with regard to subjective judgements about denture quality and design; consequently, there was modest inter-examiner agreement for stability, retention, and occlusal balance.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings from this preliminary work suggest that the schedule may be useful in the assessment of normative denture treatment need in a community setting. Nevertheless more work will be required to obtain further information on the validity of this new assessment measure.
McNaugher
G A
GA
Armagh and Dungannon Health and Social Services Trust, Belfast.
Benington
I C
IC
Freeman
R
R
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D016302:Centric Relation; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003767:Dental Occlusion, Balanced; D003777:Dental Prophylaxis; D017266:Dental Prosthesis / Q000592:standards; D003779:Denture Design; D003821:Denture Identification Marking; D003823:Denture Rebasing; D003780:Denture Repair; D003781:Denture Retention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible / Q000502:physiology; D009068:Movement; D020380:Needs Assessment; D015588:Observer Variation; D019558:Occlusal Adjustment; D009911:Oral Hygiene Index; D010808:Physical Examination; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D013223:Statistics as Topic