title: Inter-rater reliability of the Mallampati classification for patients in a dental hygiene clinic.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to assess the inter-rater reliability between dental hygiene students and a supervising dentist using the Mallampati classification to evaluate and classify the pharyngeal soft tissues.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of 234 patients volunteered for the study. Mallampati classifications were performed by 21 dental hygiene students for patients during a 12 month period. During that same time period, the clinic dentist performed an independent assessment on the same patients. Quantitative research methods were used to evaluate the inter-rater reliability between dental hygiene students and the clinical dentist in performing the Mallampati classification. The data was analyzed using adjusted McNemar test for non-independent data, Kappa score and percentage of agreement with 95% bootstrap confidence interval.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was an agreement between the dental hygiene student and the dentist in the majority of the independent assessments with a p-value=0.498 from the adjusted McNemar test. Inter-rater agreement measured by Cohen's Kappa coefficient was 0.54 with a 95% bootstrap confidence interval of 0.42, 0.64. The percentage agreement was around 77% with a 95% confidence interval of 72%, 82%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It was concluded that dental hygiene students can evaluate and classify the pharyngeal soft tissues comparable to a supervising dentist in the clinical dental hygiene setting.
authors.forename: Diane P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Kandray
authors.forename: Debbie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Juruaz
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yacovone
authors.forename: G Andy
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D003756:Dental Hygienists / Q000193:education*; D003815:Dentists; D006801:Humans; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal; D009055:Mouth / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D015588:Observer Variation; D009960:Oropharynx / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000145:classification; D013334:Students; D014059:Tongue / Q000033:anatomy & histology
keywords: clinical dental hygiene education; inter-rater reliability; mallampati classification; obstructive sleep apnea