Hygiene-therapists could be used to screen for XXXX .

@entity1 @entity8108 @entity11962 @entity2520
MethodologyA purposive sample of large NHS dental practices with a minimum of three surgeries employing at least one hygiene-therapist (HT) was taken. Asymptomatic @entity1 attending for routine checkups who consented to the study underwent a screen by @entity8108 -T for @entity2520 (index test) followed by a screen by a general dental practitioner (reference test). @entity1 were recruited consecutively. @entity8108 -Ts and dentists attended a compulsory training day, which covered recruitment, consenting, screening process, calibration using stock photographs and @entity1 record form completion. Diagnostic threshold for caries was any tooth in the @entity1 's mouth that showed evidence of @entity11962 or shadowing and opacity that would indicate dental caries into the dentine. The diagnostic threshold for periodontal disease was any pocket in the @entity1 's mouth where the black-band of a basic periodontal examination (BPE) probe (3.5 to 5.5 mm) partially or totally disappeared (ie BPE code 3). The index test was compared with the reference test to determine true-positive, false-positive, false-negative and true-negative values. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic odds ratios are shown in Table 1.ResultsEighteen hundred and ninety-nine @entity1 consented to dental screening with 996 @entity1 being randomly allocated to see the dentist first and 903 @entity8108 -T first. The time interval between the index and reference test never exceeded 21 minutes. With the exception of two practices failing to collect data on smoking and dentures there were no missing results regarding the outcome of a positive or negative screening decision. No adverse events were reported. Mean screening time was five min 25 s for @entity8108 -Ts and four min 26 s for dentists. Dentists identified 668 @entity1 with caries (Prevalence of 0.35) while @entity8108 -Ts classified 548 positive and correctly identified 1,047 of the 1,231 @entity1 with no caries. Dentists identified 1074 @entity1 with at least one pocket exceeding 3.5 mm in depth. Of these 935 were correctly identified by the @entity8108 -Ts. For the 825 screened as negative by the dentist @entity8108 -Ts correctly identified 621.ConclusionsThe results suggest that hygiene-therapists could be used to screen for @entity2520 . This has important ramifications for service design in public-funded health systems.
