The Effects of Varying Diagnostic Records on Subjective Orthodontic Treatment Priority Assessments

Abstract

With the introduction of dental public health programmes throughout the world malocclusion severity and treatment priority assessments are a matter of interest to the orthodontic profession. Public health administrators have attempted to remove the subjectivity of clinical assessment by the use of objective indices of malocclusion. However, at the present time subjective assessment by orthodontists would appear to be the most satisfactory method of making treatment priority assessments for orthodontic cases. The studies which have investigated the variability of treatment priortiy scores made by examiners show approximately twenty per cent of cases produce variations in the assessments made.