Development and evaluation of a self-report measure for identifying type and use of removable partial dentures

To develop and validate a self-complete questionnaire suitable for use in primary dental care settings.

A questionnaire survey.

The research was undertaken in primary dental care (general dental practices, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) and two teaching hospitals (Newcastle Dental Hospital, UK; University Dental School and Hospital, Cork, Ireland). A self-assessment of numbers of teeth and removable partial dentures questionnaire was devised and distributed to 137 patients in the three settings. Following completion of the questionnaire, each patient's dentist then examined them and completed the same questionnaire. The two sets of information were then compared. In the second phase of the study, 37 subjects completed the questionnaire in their own home and their dentist completed the questionnaire at a subsequent clinical examination.

There was excellent agreement regarding counting of teeth [80%, Kappa = 0.79, s.e. 0.04 for maxillary teeth and 77%, Kappa = 0.68, s.e. 0.03 for mandibular teeth]. There was also good agreement between dentists and patients in terms of positioning of spaces in the dental arch (79.6-92.6%). Subjects in the study were also able to accurately identify the type of denture they had (either acrylic or cobalt-chromium based). These findings were confirmed in the second phase of the study.

Agreement between dentists and patients was very good. This self-report measure could be of use when gathering data for studies of partially dentate patients.