title: Reproducibility of clinical attachment level and probing depth of a manual probe and a computerized electronic probe.
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility of a conventional manual probe (MP) and an electronic probe, the Florida Probe (FP). Twenty patients with chronic periodontitis were assessed for pocket depth (PD) and clinical attachment level (CAL) by one examiner. Replicate measurements were taken one hour apart with each probe, on anterior teeth, at six sites per tooth. Pearson's correlation test and Student's paired t-test were used for the statistical analysis. The results showed that there were no significant differences in PD between the replicate measurements of both FP and MP (p > 0.05), although the correlation value was higher for FP (r = 0.97, p < 0.01) than for MP (r = 0.54, p < 0.05). Considering CAL, no differences were found between replicate measurements for both FP and MP (p > 0.05) and correlation values were similar (0.57 and 0.64, respectively, p < 0.001). Although the FP showed higher correlation values for PD, no significant differences were found between duplicate measurements for both probes. Thus, both electronic and manual probing measurements seem to be reproducible when assessing periodontal disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics and Periodontics, School of Dentistry at Piracicaba, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Renato de Vasconcelos
authors.initials: Rde V
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: Luciana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Machion
authors.forename: Denise Carleto
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Andia
authors.forename: Márcio Zaffalon
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Casati
authors.forename: Antonio Wilson
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Sallum
authors.forename: Enilson Antonio
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Sallum
mesh_terms: D003762:Dental Instruments; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D003945:Diagnosis, Oral / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004582:Electronics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D017622:Periodontal Attachment Loss / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010512:Periodontal Index; D010514:Periodontal Pocket / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010517:Periodontics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric