Value of operating auxiliary personnel for caries diagnosis in dental epidemiology.

The ability of a suitably trained operating auxiliary to obtain similar diagnostic results to those of a dentist was tested on 200 11--12 year-old boys and girls selected from a larger sample taking part in a 3-year caries prophylactic clinical trial. A clinical and radiographic examinati-n of all children was performed by both examiners at the beginning of the study and at three subsequent yearly examinations. The reliability of the caries prevalence and incremental data was high for both the dentist and hygienist. Differences between mean caries scores were consistently found between the examiners at the initial lesion level for clinical and radiographic diagnosis. Over the incremental periods of the study neither examiner revealed a significant difference between control and test groups until the end of the 3rd year when both measured a significant difference in mean DMFS at the clinical cavitation level, 26.2% for the dentist and 25.2% for the hygienist.