Journal of Dental Research, Vol 66, 1044-1048, Copyright © 1987 by International & American Associations for Dental Research Online Journals
The efficiency of half-mouth examinations in estimating the prevalence of periodontal disease
R. J. Hunt
Several studies, including the NIDR 1985 national survey of working adults,
have used periodontal examinations of only two quadrants of the mouth to
estimate the prevalence of periodontal conditions. To investigate the
efficiency of half-mouth periodontal examinations, I compared the results
from the examination of all teeth in a sample of 477 dentate elderly people
with scores that would have been obtained if randomly selected pairs of
quadrants had been examined instead. In this elderly dentate population,
relatively little information would have been lost if diagonal half-mouth
or same-side half-mouth scores instead of whole-mouth scores had been used
to estimate the number or proportion of teeth with periodontal conditions.
However, the proportion of people with the less prevalent conditions, i.e.,
deep pocketing and mobility, was underestimated slightly. Slightly less
efficiency was also noted for the less prevalent conditions. These findings
suggest that half-mouth recording may be useful for prevalence surveys, but
cannot be recommended for incidence surveys or clinical trials, where
incremental changes may be small.
