An evaluation of U.S. Navy Dental Corps classification guidelines.
OBJECTIVE
The aims of this research were to evaluate the effectiveness of two different sets of dental classification guidelines to differentiate dental emergency (DE) rates between deployable and nondeployable personnel.


METHODS
A retrospective study of the dental records of two cohorts of Marine Corps recruits examined and treated using different classification guidelines was completed.


RESULTS
Both classification systems showed significant differences between DE rates of nondeployable and deployable personnel. No statistical difference was observed when comparing the adjusted HRs of the two cohorts.


CONCLUSIONS
Results of this study suggest that both guidelines are able to distinguish between deployable and nondeployable personnel and give reasonable assurance that class 1 and 2 patients will not experience a DE for a 6-month period. Incorporating factors such as caries risk, number of missing and filled teeth, and number of third molars may improve the ability of the dental classification systems in predicting DE.
Naval Medical Research Unit San Antonio, 8315 Navy Road, Brooks City Base, TX 78235, USA.
John W
JW
Simecek
Kim E
KE
Diefenderfer
D000328:Adult; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008885:Military Dentistry; D008889:Military Personnel; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014076:Tooth Diseases / Q000145:classification* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D014481:United States; D014938:Work Capacity Evaluation