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The accuracy of tooth loss data collected by nurses
J J Warren1, S M Levy, J S Hand
1Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, University of Iowa College of Dentistry, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA.
Summary
Trained nurses accurately counted teeth, achieving high agreement with dentists. This demonstrates that non-dental healthcare workers can reliably collect oral health data, offering a cost-effective solution for large studies.
Area of Science:
- Oral health research
- Healthcare worker training
- Clinical data collection
Background:
- Accurate tooth counts are crucial for longitudinal studies.
- Assessing the reliability of non-dental healthcare professionals in data collection is important for multi-disciplinary research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the accuracy of tooth counts performed by trained nurses compared to dentists.
- To determine the feasibility of using non-dental healthcare workers for collecting oral health data.
Main Methods:
- Ten trained nurses independently counted teeth in 22 subjects.
- Nurses underwent a comprehensive training program.
- Tooth counts were compared against those of dentists using agreement percentages, kappa statistics, and correlation coefficients.
Main Results:
- Nurses and dentists achieved perfect agreement in 86% of patient counts.
- Individual nurse-dentist agreement ranged from 73% to 100% (kappa 0.70-1.00).
- Pearson and interclass correlation coefficients consistently exceeded 0.98.
Conclusions:
- Training non-dental healthcare workers enables accurate tooth counting.
- This approach provides a cost-effective method for collecting oral health data in large studies.
- Nurses can reliably contribute to oral health data collection in multi-disciplinary research.