A clinical procedure for determining the proficiency of gingivitis examiners.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate a clinical procedure for determining the proficiency of gingivitis examiners. After 4 examiner trainees were instructed by and participated in practice examination sessions with a senior examiner, the 5 examiners participated in a 2-group clinical study which employed appropriately timed-staggered dental prophylaxes to create a gingivitis treatment effect between the 2 groups. The 1st group received dental prophylaxes 30 days before the 2nd group. 10 days after the 2nd group had received dental prophylaxes, both groups were examined independently by all 5 examiners. Baseline examinations had been made on all subjects by all 5 examiners independently to serve as a covariable in the statistical analyses. During this clinical exercise, the examiners did not know at what time prophylaxes had been given nor did they have access to the previous examination records. The expected presence of a treatment effect, as confirmed by the senior examiner, was found by all of the examiner trainees in this exercise. The treatment effect for all examiners was statistically significant.