Lower third molar treatment planning ability of general dental practitioners and oral maxillofacial surgeons using receiver operating characteristics methodology.

A comparison of lower third molar treatment planning ability of six oral and maxillofacial surgeons (three consultants, two senior registrars and one senior house officer) and 27 general dental practitioners was carried out using Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) methodology. Each clinician was presented with the same series of 50 case histories and asked to indicate, using a rating scale, how certain they were that each lower third molar required removal. These data, together with NIH gold standard treatment decisions for each third molar, were then used to construct ROC curves for each clinician and, using combined data, to produce ROC curves for the groups of hospital specialists and general dental practitioners. These curves were then compared statistically. There were significant differences between the best and worst practitioners, both in the hospital service and within general dental practice. When combined data were examined, however, there was no statistical difference in the treatment planning ability of hospital specialists and general dental practitioners. These findings indicate that lower third molar treatment planning ability is more dependent upon individual factors than specialist training. Further, the data presented here suggest that general dental practitioners are as capable of treatment planning for lower third molars as the specialists to whom they refer.