The efficacy of screening for common dental diseases by hygiene-therapists: a diagnostic test accuracy study.

ABSTRACT: Regularly attending adult patients are increasingly asymptomatic and not in need of treatment when attending for their routine dental examinations. As oral health improves further, using the general dental practitioner to undertake the "checkup" on regular "low-risk" patients represents a substantial and potentially unnecessary cost for state-funded systems. Given recent regulatory changes in the United Kingdom, it is now theoretically possible to delegate a range of tasks to hygiene-therapists. This has the potential to release the general dental practitioner's time and increase the capacity to care. The aim of this study is to compare the diagnostic test accuracy of hygiene-therapists when screening for dental caries and periodontal disease in regularly attending asymptomatic adults who

SUBMITTER: Macey R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4541095 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature