Evaluation of dental therapists undertaking dental examinations in a school setting in Scotland

Abstract

Objective To measure agreement between dental therapists and the Scottish gold‐standard dentist undertaking National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP) examinations. Methods A study of interexaminer agreement between 19 dental therapists and the national gold‐standard dentist was carried out. Pre‐calibration training used the caries diagnostic criteria and examination techniques agreed by the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry (BASCD). Twenty‐three 5‐year‐old children (Primary 1) and 17 11‐year‐old children (Primary 7) children were examined. Agreement was assessed using kappa statistics on d3mft and D3MFT for P1 and P7 children, sensitivity and specificity values, and kappa statistics on d3t/D3T and ft/FT. Calibration data on P1 and P7 children from 2009–2012 involving dentists as examiners were used for comparison. Economic evaluation was undertaken using a cost minimization analysis approach. Results The mean kappa score was 0.84 (SD 0.07) ranging from 0.69 to 0.94. All dental therapists scored good or very good agreement with the gold‐standard dentist. This compares with historic NDIP calibration data with dentists, against the same gold‐standard dentist, where the mean kappa value was 0.68 (SD 0.22) with a range of 0.35‐1.00. The mean sensitivity score was 0.98 (SD 0.04) (range 0.88‐1.0) and mean specificity score was 0.90 (SD 0.06) (range 0.78‐0.96). Health economic analysis estimated that salary costs would be 33.6% lower if dental therapists were substituted for dentists in the year 2013, with an estimated saving of approximately £103 646 per annum on the national budget. Conclusion We conclude that dental therapists show a high level of interexaminer agreement, and with the appropriate annual training and calibration, they could undertake dental examinations as part of the NDIP programme.

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